In the News

Linda Torres, a graduate student at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, ziplined over the mountains of Brazil this May. Was it mentioned that Torres is afraid of heights? “I don’t even know how I got in the zipline,” said the Brownsville native majoring in counseling and guidance. “I could see the mountains and the trees. I don’t know how to explain it. It was just life-changing.”

BROWNSVILLE — Splitting her time between advocacy work and teaching has taught Selma Yznaga, associate professor of counseling at University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, the commonalities between two of her passions, counseling and social justice, as well as the clear distinctions.

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (July 17, 2018)—Dr. Alberto Dávila, dean of the Donald L. Harrison College of Business at Southeast Missouri State University, recently co-published a new study with the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) which examines the Hispanic-white wage gap among full-time workers.

Researchers at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s Department of Health and Biomedical Sciences are working to develop a next generation of anti-HIV drugs that are more effective and have fewer side effects

HARLINGEN — The room quickly turned emotional as family, friends and possible new mentors watched 56 students get cloaked with their white coat as they prepare to begin the first year of medical school at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

That greeting was common among many South Texan Mexican American and Tejano men most of the 20th century. It isn’t Spanish or Tex-Mex. It’s a special blend of both originated by the “pachuco” culture in the barrios from San Anto (San Antonio), Houston, Laredo and on down to Corpitos (Corpus Christi) and El Valle (The Rio Grande Valley).

The Hispanic Heritage Foundation (HHF) announced today that Sister Norma Pimentel will receive the Hispanic Heritage Award for Service during the 31st Annual Hispanic Heritage Awards at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, on September 12, 2018.

EDINBURG — The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley received nearly half-a-million-dollars to research and develop a new anti-HIV drug using nanotechnology that could place the academic institution at the forefront of a possible medical breakthrough.

Dr. Selma Yznaga, associate professor of counseling at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, has been awarded the 2018 Kitty Cole Human Rights Award by the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development.

McALLEN — The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley landed third place among the top-10 institutions offering the most affordable doctoral in education technology across the nation according to the ranking site Grad School Hub.

Have the labor market conditions of the nation’s 58.9 million Hispanics (who constitute 18.1 percent of the U.S. population) improved, stayed the same, or deteriorated over recent times? The authors of a new report “Hispanic–white wage gap has remained wide and relatively steady” began their examination in 1979 and end in 2017.

In the weeks since President Donald Trump’s now-rescinded family separation policy created chaos and confusion across the country, the messages from his administration and prominent Republican members of Congress have been clear: Seek asylum legally at official ports of entry and you won’t lose your kids.

McALLEN — A greater push to reach out to students who dropped out of college in the last two years across the Rio Grande Valley is in development and will soon be implemented with the help of a grant by the Lumina and Kresge foundations, designating the region as their newest Talent Hub.

EDINBURG, RGV – The incredible impact healthcare and bioscience industry has had on the San Antonio economy will also occur in the Rio Grande Valley, says Dr. Carlos Cardenas, chairman of Doctors Hospital at Renaissance.

EDINBURG — A grant awarded by the United States Department of Education is giving students at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley a chance to have one less excuse not to go to college full-time by providing grants for child care at the campus Child Development Center.

Orlando, Florida - A devastating storm hit Puerto Rico, leaving it adrift, and it was not Hurricane Maria. Those winds combined and, over several years, they aligned to generate a whirlwind that put the Island on its knees.

Marie Mora is professor of economics at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Previously, she served as professor of economics at the University of Texas–Pan American and associate professor of economics at New Mexico State University.

AUSTIN, TX – Texas Governor Greg Abbott has appointed Maricela Alvarado and Amy Suhl to the State Commission on Judicial Conduct for terms set to expire November 19, 2023. The commission regulates the conduct of the state judiciary, including the power to recommend for retirement, censure, suspension or removal of a judge from office.

A Mexican entrepreneur who has achieved success with nopal-based powders, candies and breads is working to break into the U.S. market, with a little help from his friends at the Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Center, a real-life entrepreneurship laboratory in Brownsville.

The mission of higher education has long emphasized the role colleges and universities play as engines for social mobility, but a high-profile report from the Stanford University-based Equality of Opportunity Project (EoP) makes it clear that engine is stalled.

EDINBURG, RGV – For the past year and a half, UTRGV’s Robert C. Vackar College of Business and Entrepreneurship has implemented an internship program to encourage companies around the region to take in local talent from the University.

W.F. Strong likes to call himself a “Texologist.” It’s the sort of word one might use to describe a radio commentator, university professor or “Lonesome Dove” aficionado who once pitched a book-length collection of quotes from the novel and TV miniseries — which he wanted to call “The Lonesome Dove Bible” — to Larry McMurtry himself.

Javier Garcia, the STEM director at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Office of Community Relations, has been involved with STEM education since before science education became so widely associated with that form of learning.

AUSTIN — For Montserrat Garibay, it’s all about the muddy shoes. They were the first thing that drew her to Lupe Valdez, the Democratic candidate for governor, who often stumps about how she had to wipe mud off her shoes every morning before class as a high school student in San Antonio.

"I think that by his style and the topics he's focusing on, he's showing that he's interested in continuity in politics but also understands the need for new blood in the Cuban state," said Arturo López-Levy, a lecturer at UTRGV and a former Cuban intelligence analyst.

EDINBURG — A big reason behind the creation of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley was the ability to tie it to the creation of a school of medicine, and similar to other regions aiming for medical schools, San Antonio served as its northern star.

SHAVANO PARK — Walking into this unassuming doctor’s office here in the small, wealthy enclave within San Antonio is not unlike what one could do in McAllen. There’s a roughly 30-chair waiting room with one bathroom, a water fountain, some hanging art and a desk attendant.

SAN ANTONIO — While excitement over the long-awaited creation of a medical school in the Rio Grande Valley wanes, local leaders work to establish a solid research base in hopes of transforming the area into a health care hub not unlike San Antonio.

McALLEN — More than 2,000 prospective graduates moved their tassels from right to left to signify the completion of their degrees, during the second day of UTRGV’s Spring 2018 Commencement ceremonies on Saturday.

David Goldblatt, a second-year medical student at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine, is one of 66 students in the nation to receive the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Medical Research Fellows Award for the 2018-2019 academic year.

Pride and tradition are important to universities, and after two legacy institutions became The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, it was doubly important that some established commencement traditions carry on.

Congressman Vicente Gonzalez (TX-15) announced that the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) has awarded approximately $3.6 million in federal funding to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) School of Medicine’s South Texas Diabetes and Obesity Institute (STDOI).

BROWNSVILLE, RGV – Dr. Mario Diaz, director of the Center for Gravitational Wave Astronomy at UT-Rio Grande Valley, says Brownsville high school students will soon be able to learn astronomy in their classrooms by remotely accessing UTRGV telescopes that are tracking the stars.

David Goldblatt, a second-year medical student at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine, is one of 66 students in the nation to receive the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Medical Research Fellows Award for the 2018-2019 academic year.

Known for empowering her students to always reach for the stars, Dr. Cristina Torres will be honored posthumously Saturday, May 5, when The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley names its observatory in her memory – the UTRGV Dr. Cristina V. Torres Memorial Astronomical Observatory – during an official on-site unveiling in the Resaca de la Palma State Park.

AUSTIN — The two Democratic candidates for governor, just weeks before a May 22 runoff to decide who will challenge Republican incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott, agreed Wednesday to an Austin debate on May 11.

Public-private collaborations to build a workforce for the future have picked up speed in recent years amidst growing concerns that some skills needed to prosper are lagging behind advancements in technology. Electric cars whizzing around at speeds of up to 30 miles per hour offer a recent example of how some young people in the Rio Grande Valley are looking forward.

One of the least favorite aspects of a supervisor’s job is having to discipline, and possibly terminate, an employee. It can be fraught with emotion and legal pitfalls if not done correctly. But there are ways to minimize the unpleasant and sometimes risky task.

EDINBURG — A process long in the making intended to better support undocumented students and other groups at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley is expected come to fruition as officials have requested funding to create a new support center.

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, in collaboration with Texas Southmost College and theNational Parks Service, is set to launch a series of new additions to the trail guide and webpage on Fort Brown.

The Arbor Day Foundation has named The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley as a 2017 Tree Campus USA university for the fourth consecutive year, in recognition of its commitment to urban forest management and sustainability.

What is Elgin getting with the impending new owner of the Grand Victoria Casino? And should the community be concerned that casino behemoth MGM Resorts International is exiting the risky Illinois market?

Sylvia Robles de Viera, lecturer with the Robert C. Vackar College of Business and Entrepreneurship at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, has been awarded “Women Business Champion of the Year” by the U.S. Small Business Administration Lower Rio Grande Valley District.

AUSTIN (KXAN) - With two Zika cases in Central Texas' Williamson County being the only reports in the state so far this year, the Texas Department of State Health Services wants to remind travelers and people living in areas where the virus is known to be transmitted locally to take extra steps for preventing infection.

As the only local among Sea Turtle Inc.’s 2018 crop of interns, Brownsville native Javier Parra serves as an unofficial guide to his colleagues, who come from places like Colorado, Michigan and Puerto Rico.

Thirty-two teams of middle, high school and college students from across South Texas will converge this weekend on the Brownsville-South Padre Island International Airport for the first HESTEC Green Power USA South Texas Electric Car Competition.

A federal grant to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley from the Texas General Land Office will be used to develop a computer model to simulate dozens of possible flooding scenarios for the South Texas coastal region during hurricanes.

Gov. Cuomo rolled craps on his casino bet, and taxpayers could wind up covering the losing wager. The struggling del Lago Casino in the Finger Lakes is looking for a government bailout just 13 months after it opened — despite Cuomo promising that new casinos ­upstate would be a win-win.

EDINBURG — Janis Feldman, 69, associate professor of social work at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, remembers looking for the Afikoman (the hidden matzah) and participating in other Passover festivities as a young girl.

EDINBURG — Cynthia Jones was the first woman to be permanently hired by the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s Philosophy Department, but had a college professor not intervened nearly three decades ago, she may not be where she is today.

ON MARCH 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson signed a law granting U.S. citizenship to the residents of Puerto Rico. But 101 years later, the federal government, by abandoning the island in the wake of a crippling debt crisis and an even more devastating hurricane, is treating Puerto Ricans like citizens in name only.

WESLACO — Close to a year into its expansion to the Mid-Valley region, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine has received a nearly $2 million gift to start genomic research on diabetes using Valley participants.

Spring Break was in full swing, but Dr. Daniel Hunter-Holly was still in his office helping students. Music clearly plays a major role in the life of the associate professor of music and voice in the UTRGV School of Music, Department of Fine Arts.

CME Group, the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, today announced the winners of its 15th annual CME GroupTrading Challenge, including the first-place winners from The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV).

With so many first-generation college students in the Rio Grande Valley, and so many who are financially struggling and must work while taking classes, we applaud the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley for recently being ranked third in the nation in terms of offering the best values and fastest online degrees in 2018.

Crisis pregnancy centers, or CPCs, are religious centers that pose as clinics in order to convince people not to have an abortion. These fake clinics undermine women’s health care decision-making, and reproductive choice advocates like 22-year-old Ofelia Alonso are working hard to expose them.

Havana (AFP) – As Cuban President Raul Castro prepares to step down next month, ending his family’s six-decade grip on power, his successor will be faced with major challenges, including the implementation of economic reforms vital for the island’s future.

When it comes to giving back to the community, UTRGV student Jesus Basañez learned from some of the best. His grandmother, Ernestina Notargiacomo, started the ball rolling. Then her daughter (and Jesus’s mother), Bonnie Notargiacomo, followed. Now, it’s Jesus’s turn.

SAN ANTONIO (March 20, 2018) – Mayor Ron Nirenberg and the City of San Antonio announce Octavio Quintanilla, Ph.D., as San Antonio’s new Poet Laureate. Quintanilla, a local author and professor, will serve as the City’s fourth Poet Laureate for a two-year term from 2018-2020.

HARLINGEN — He’s seen great changes in the medical community, and it’s not over yet. When Dr. Stan Fisch first arrived in the Valley, Su Clinica was a migrant health center, babies were underserved, and the vaccine preventing meningitis hadn’t been invented yet.

Dr. Teresa Feria-Arroyo, associate professor of biology, said she is delighted to have been honored as the Outstanding International Women Faculty Member on Friday, during the UTRGV International Women’s Day celebration held on the Brownsville campus.

HARLINGEN - UT Health Rio Grande Valley, the clinical component of The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine, has acquired a general surgery practice in Harlingen as part of the School of Medicine’s mission to increase access to primary and specialty care for residents throughout the region.

HARLINGEN, Texas - UTRGV is opening an open surgery and specialty center just for women. As part of the clinical component of the UTRGV School of Medicine, the Women's Specialty Center located in Harlingen, will offer surgical consolations.

The first Graduate Research Symposium hosted by the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, which took place last week in Brownsville and Edinburg, was a step toward a greater emphasis on research at UTRGV.

EDINBURG — Planning for expected growth of the new School of Medicine at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, UT regents last week approved construction of a new $12.2 million building for the program.

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley plans to open a recruiting office in Matamoros. UTRGV President Guy Bailey made the impromptu statement during remarks at a press conference announcing the first ever bi-national 10k and 5k run between Brownsville and Matamoros.

EDINBURG — A new administrative structure for the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley is in the works according to a memo sent by President Guy Bailey announcing that three people will handle the duties of former Provost Havidán Rodriguez.

In December, Andrea Ramos Fernandez is supposed to graduate from the University of Texas at San Antonio with a bachelor’s degree in public administration. The last stretch of any student’s undergraduate degree is usually a stressful yet thrilling time as they start to look forward to the next stage of their life. But despite four years of studying and working as a community organizer in the city, planning for the future is a luxury that Ms Fernandez does not have: she is not even sure if she will be able to stay in the country after August.

EDINBURG — When one thinks of resources to improve literacy, comics might not immediately come to mind. There is more to literacy, however, than classic novels. The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley is on to that.

The Anxiety and Depression Association of America, state on their website that anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness, in the U.S. It affects 40 million adults in the United States age 18 and older. Experts say this type of disorder is treatable, but only around 37 percent of those affected get help. It can affect your cardiovascular system, give you high blood pressure, increase your risk of diabetes, obesity, and depression.

Vanessa Reyna was in high school in Edcouch, Texas, a town of about 3,400 people in the Rio Grande Valley, when a teacher suggested she try pursuing an engineering degree. Reyna now works in Tucson, Arizona, on some of the most timely and critical defense technology the U.S. has. Specifically, she performs finite element analysis and testing of missile defense equipment.

Dr. Alex Racelis. assistant professor in the School of Earth, Environmental and Marine Sciences (SEEMS) at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, is one of 15 food and water security researchers in the world named as 2018-19 Public Engagement Fellows by the Alan I. Leshner Leadership Institute of The American Association for the Advancement of Science.

A researcher at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley won a nearly $2.4 million, four-year grant to study how lipid levels and individual genetic makeup can lead to heart disease among Mexican-American patients.

McALLEN — After 20 minutes of back-and-forth, city commissioners voted Monday to pay the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine $1 million that will specifically go toward a cancer immunology program based in McAllen.

When Rebekah Hernandez chose her major, her family was concerned. She remembers them asking, “Are you sure you want to do this? Do you even have job opportunities with this? What is going to happen with your life?”

Longtime educator Margot Cisneros Torres was named a congressional record award recipient. The San Benito Chamber of Commerce, where she serves on the board of directors, recently held a ceremony honoring the achievement.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and 11 other universities have announced they will be part of a special initiative known as SEMINAL: Student Engagement in Mathematics through an Institutional Network for Active Learning.

BROWNSVILLE — With a clear message of the need for the Latino community to be better represented, respected and unified, Diane Guerrero addressed a crowd of about 500 students at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley on Thursday.

“I’m not a be-still or sit-still kind of guy,” said sculptor Doug Clark in his Edinburg studio. The number and variety of bronze sculptures he has created in his 35-year career are a testament to that.

Longtime educator Margot Cisneros Torres will earn recognition for being named a congressional record award recipient. A local ceremony is scheduled for Wednesday, January 31, at 9:30 AM at the San Benito Chamber of Commerce, where she proudly serves on the Board of Directors.

EDINBURG — University of Texas Rio Grande Valley officials completed a tuition increase proposal to be presented to the UT Board of Regents next month. It will be the first to include additional charges for several majors mainly in the engineering and business departments.

EDINBURG — Once a week students in professor Cristina Villalobos’ Calculus I class form groups of four to solve math problems. They are encouraged to talk to each other, use their phones to create graphs and ask as many questions as possible.

MISSION - Whether it’s their newfound social media presence or their revamped Buenas Tardes Luncheons - The Greater Mission Chamber of Commerce has certainly gotten a face-lift in the past months, and people are beginning to notice.

UTRGV’s Art Gallery at Rusteberg Hall and the Brownsville Museum of Fine Art have collaborated on “Icons and Symbols of the Borderland,” an exhibit curated by Diana Molina and organized by the Juntos Art Association.

EDINBURG — Being a point of contact for all emergency responders in the area is one of Pablo Mendez’ main concerns as emergency management coordinator for the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, and now his focus will widen as he will lead an emergency committee for the entire UT System.

Census surveyors already have a hard time getting undocumented immigrants to talk to them, and a mix of current political rhetoric and a proposal to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census likely is making their jobs more difficult.

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – Fresh produce, home baked goods and vegan and vegetarian items are available for a small cost to university students and the public every month, through the UTRGV Environmental Awareness Club’s Farmers Market..

UTRGV students will have the opportunity to learn about volunteering and service-learning opportunities at the Engagement Zone, where local nonprofit agencies will have representatives on hand to connect with students.

Studying abroad can bring new experiences for students looking to add some adventure to the curriculum. But when UTRGV education major Michelle C. Hernandez decided to spend a semester in Puerto Rico this past summer, she hadn’t bargained on Hurricane Irma, and much less on Hurricane Maria.

EDINBURG — A small briefcase containing paperwork, a laptop, cellphone, and more than likely a Diet Coke are some of Guy Bailey’s essentials for his daily commutes across the Rio Grande Valley. This includes an extra suit and tie in the case of an impromptu meeting or event.

EDINBURG — While the contribution was appreciated, a bigger plan is being discussed. The city of McAllen presented a check for $1 million to University of Texas Rio Grande Valley at its School of Medicine on Wednesday.

BROWNSVILLE — UTRGV police dispatcher Karina Reyna sat alone on the third floor of the biomedical building on the Brownsville Campus, answering phone calls even as her eyes constantly move from camera to camera.

EDINBURG — The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley secured a continuation of a seven-year $21.2 million federal grant intended to continue guiding at-risk students in the area toward a college education, especially in science and technology fields.

EDINBURG — While some UTRGV students spent the summer traveling to new destinations via airplane or road trip, studio art major Karely Gallegos made her way to Washington, D.C., via illustration and a pressed penny.

Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro died one year ago, but his legacy is still having an impact across the world. From the Caribbean to Africa, his actions shaped the history of the 20th century. Arturo Lopez Levy, a lecturer on Latin American and American politics at the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley and New York University, discusses with CGTN’s Susan Roberts.

Dr. John H. Krouse, dean of The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine and vice president for Health Affairs, participated in the Texas Tribune’s A Conversation on Health Care Reform panel discussion, held Tuesday at the Edinburg Conference Center at Renaissance.

EDINBURG — Nearly 100 people “walked out” of their classrooms and gathered around the Tree of Solidarity on the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley campus as part of a coordinated national effort to urge lawmakers to work out a deal for Dreamers.

It was just too far from home, never mind the winters. Although the executive director of the Women’s Business Center of Cameron County was born in Mexico City, she’s lived nearly half her life in Brownsville since moving here with parents 17 years ago, and this feels like home now, she said in a recent interview.

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS - While some UTRGV students spent the summer traveling to new destinations via airplane or road trip, studio art major Karely Gallegos made her way to Washington, D.C., via illustration and a pressed penny.

Rio Grande Valley is getting ready to be the home of three new healthcare centers. This is thanks to a $3.75 million federal grant given to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine.

EDINBURG - Former San Antonio Mayor and Obama administration cabinet member Juli·n Castro launched the Distinguished Speaker Series at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley on Wednesday in front of students, area residents and local elected officials.

McALLEN ó After months of disagreement and in what was likely Commissioner Richard Cortezís final commission meeting before he is expected to announce his candidacy for Hidalgo County judge, city commissioners voted on Monday to pay the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley $1 million for its School of Medicine.

EDINBURG, TXó Congressman Vicente Gonzalez (TX-15) announced that the U.S. Offices of Public Health and Science and Minority Health within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has awarded the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) $344,689 to establish a childhood obesity prevention program.

The question of whether to fund the UTRGV School of Medicine was brought before two different governmental entities within two days this week and, thankfully, resulted in the same outcome: to give the fledgling medical school much-needed money.

EDINBURG, TX — Congressman Vicente Gonzalez (TX-15) announced that the U.S. Department of Education has awarded the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) $277,134 in federal funding for the Upward Bound Math and Science Program.

EDINBURG — Three new healthcare centers are slated to be created throughout the Rio Grande Valley as part of a $3.75 million federal grant awarded to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration has awarded $3.75 million to The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine to develop three Area Health Education Centers (AHEC).

If you’ve wondered about the Rio Grande Valley Civil War Trail markers in and around Brownsville, they mark key historical locations in the U.S. Civil War, of which the Rio Grande Valley and deep South Texas have a surprising number.

EDINBURG — With much still left up in the air for recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival permits, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley is trying to reassure students of its commitment to educate every student regardless of immigration status.

Rachita Sharma, a faculty member in the University of North Texas Department of Rehabilitation and Health Services, received the President’s Award from the National As sociation of Multicultural Rehabilitation Concerns for her work on the organization's annual conferences.

MISSION, RGV – Javier Palomarez, President and CEO of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, says that Latinos are increasingly becoming the face of entrepreneurship in America. Palomarez spoke at The Greater Mission Chamber of Commerce “Buenas Tardes” luncheon on Thursday, where he gave statistics about the economic contributions of Hispanics in the country.

According to master-of-finance.org, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley is sixth in the nation among the 50 most affordable online Master of Business Administration in Financial Planning degrees.

AUSTIN - With two federal courts again blasting Texas for "intentional discrimination" against blacks and Hispanics in drawing political boundaries, concern is mounting that voter-rights litigation could upend the state's 2018 elections calendar.

With Hurricane Harvey now upgraded to a Category 3 hurricane and set to make landfall late today (August 25) or early tomorrow, researchers in its path have prepared their facilities and are waiting to see if their experiments, equipment, and samples can survive the storm.

BROWNSVILLE, RGV – A new study analyzed for the first time the Brownsville-Matamoros manufacturing sector to determine what the region needed to create a competitive advanced manufacturing hub in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.

The UTRGV Division of Academic Affairs celebrated the accomplishments of its faculty, students and staff during two 2017 Fall Convocations, held Monday, Aug. 21, on the Edinburg Campus, and Tuesday, Aug. 22, in Brownsville.

In the last few years, avocados have been regarded as a superfood being a source of healthy monounsaturated fats. These good fats have been credited with keeping you full and satisfied for longer and thus, helping in weight loss. A new study conducted by researchers from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley adds more to its list of benefits.

Harlingen Consolidated Independent School District has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley that will create a new opportunity for Harlingen students to take Dual Credit college courses on pathways designed to meet the University’s core requirements for a bachelor’s degree.

HARLINGEN — She’s breaking new ground. Camryn Hale just spent two weeks of graduate level work — as a high school freshman — performing research on genetics and how different animal parts affect traits.

EDINBURG, TX— Congressman Vicente Gonzalez (TX-15) announced that the Center for Mental Health Services within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has awarded the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) School of Medicine $101,539 to establish a robust suicide prevention program on its medical school campus.

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley is the recipient of $499,985 in federal funding to establish an NSF Innovation Corps Site. The I-Corps site, funded by the National Science Foundation, will be in the university’s Center for Industrialization and Commercialization.

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley has been ranked sixth among the 50 most affordable online Master of Business Administration in Financial Planning degrees in the country by master-of-finance.org.

The UTRGV Center for Bilingual Studies and the Center for Mexican American Studies recently brought Dual Language K-5 teachers to campus for a special workshop titled “Project Culturally Relevant Education in Social Studies (CRESS).

Guy Bailey, president of The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, met with the Harlingen CISD School Board to sign a Memorandum of Understanding that will let Harlingen students take Dual Credit college courses on pathways designed to meet the university’s core requirements for a bachelor’s degree.

EDINBURG, TX— Today, Congressman Vicente Gonzalez (TX-15) announced that the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) has received $217,950 in federal funding to plan and prepare for a clinical trial on the effectiveness of exposure therapy as a viable treatment option for dental phobia in children.

The Harlingen Consolidated Independent School District and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley expanded their partnership Tuesday night by signing a memorandum to offer expanded post-secondary opportunities for students at HCISD’s Early College High School.

EDINBURG — Local technology-based research and entrepreneurship could be getting a boost thanks to a federal grant awarded to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley to establish the third Innovation Corps Site in the state.

The UTRGV chapter of the national Phi Iota Alpha Fraternity Inc. earned awards at the fraternity’s 85th national convention, held July 26-30 at the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington, D.C.

Taking advantage of an opportunity traditionally reserved for graduate level studies, incoming ninth-grader Camryn Hale completed a two-week long genetic research experience at the South Texas Diabetes and Obesity Institute this summer.

EDINBURG — After months of uncertainty over health care nationwide, the focus fell on the health needs along the border Friday as lawmakers and physicians came together for the annual Border Health Conference.

EDINBURG, TX—Congressman Vicente Gonzalez (TX-15) today announced that the National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) $499,985 in federal funding to establish an NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps) Site. The University’s Center for Industrialization and Commercialization (CIC) will house the site and Dr. Mark Kroll will serve as the site’s director.

EDINBURG — The Hidalgo County Commissioners Court gave Hiram Moya his 31st letter of support for the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s application to establish the first U.S. Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence (COE) in the Rio Grande Valley.

Middle school students had a chance to navigate an underwater robotics vehicle and experiment with hovercraft, among other activities, during the first BLAST (Boys Learning Advanced Science & Technology) Camp at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

Bianca Lopez, a graduate communications student at UTRGV, sat in the pews of the Basílica de Guadalupe this summer, gazing at the beautiful Spanish Colonial architecture and art, as she expressed her faith in one of the oldest Catholic shrines in the world.

The Underwater Unmanned Vehicle (UUV) market is predicted to grow to $5.2 B by 2022 according to a 2017 Research and Markets report. The UUV market is broken into two sub categories including Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) and Remote Operated Vehicles (ROV).

EDINBURG — Officials at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley announced Friday that Patricia Alvarez McHatton will take on the role of interim vice president for academic affairs effective Aug. 1, as founding Vice President Havidán Rodríguez departs this summer.

U.S. Rep. Filemón Vela (D-TX 34) announced this week that The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley has been awarded $2.25 million in federal funding from the U.S. Department of Education’s College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP).

The deaths of 10 migrants in a sweltering 18-wheeler in San Antonio has raised a lot of questions. One of them: Why transport people in the back of a tractor-trailer, especially after they have already crossed the border?.

EDINBURG, Texas - Many teens turn to mom and dad to help prepare them for the future. Kids in the foster care system may feel like they have no support to help them succeed. The state of Texas is working hard to raise well-rounded young adults.

When Thomas Homan, the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was awakened Sunday morning with news that migrants were found dead inside a sweltering tractor-trailer outside a San Antonio Walmart, his mind flashed back to 2003, when he stood at the back of a truck about 120 miles southeast of San Antonio that carried 19 dead migrants.

WESLACO — Members from various sectors — including health care, education and law enforcement — met Tuesday evening for the final regional Prescription Drug Misuse Prevention town hall event organized by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.

A few miles across the Texas-Mexico Border is the Sacred Heart Catholic Church, a historical sanctuary in McAllen, Texas. In a single day, hundreds of people crossing the border might be dropped off at the doors of the church after passing through immigration.

Eva Garcia of the city’s department of planning and development aims to move the city and the region forward by helping make the Lower Rio Grande Valley Active Transportation and Tourism Plan a reality.

As healthcare reform and debate consumes Washington (and most of the country) with projections of the millions of potentially uninsured changing daily, it’s refreshing to hear when healthcare services are improving and looking up for a region.

MERCEDES — Nestled among some of the poorest colonias in the area, elderly homes and public schools is a new family practice clinic that will host the first-of-its-kind residency program for graduate students at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

EDINBURG — In recently released data by the National Science Foundation on minority institutions with the most federal funding for science and engineering research, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley ranked among the top 20 in the nation.

EDINBURG — The final year of college can be a whirlwind of exams, projects and exhaustion for most. But what kept four mechanical engineering students at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley focused were letters from a local resident asking for help recovering what most people can take for granted, writing by hand.

McALLEN — On the heels of a closed-door meeting between Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus where the legality of a program that shields more than 800,000 undocumented immigrants was questioned, local recipients now must wait and worry about the program’s future — and theirs.

With several upcoming exhibitions in progress, Raheleh Filsoofi drove 17 hours over the course of a few days, traveling from Providence to D.C. to Buffalo, before finally landing in Chautauqua on Sunday.

McALLEN — On the heels of a closed-door meeting between Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus — during which the legality of a program that shields more than 800,000 undocumented immigrants was questioned — local recipients now must wait and worry about the program’s future, and their own.

Fostering a future generation of teachers is essential to the academic growth and success of our future students in our state and Rio Grande Valley region. Therefore we applaud a generous new scholarship program announced Monday that will provide $50 million over the next decade to help develop new teachers, including those in the RGV.

At age 87, Dolores Huerta continues to stand at the forefront of the fight for human rights with the same ganas and stamina of the fearless 32-year-old woman who formed the first farm workers union with Cesar Chavez in 1962.

EDINBURG — As part of a system-wide effort to improve graduation and retention rates, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley will receive a $1.6 million grant to create support systems to help guide students from entry to graduation.

In class, I sometimes talk with students about their goals and plans beyond college. They may have specific ideas or just a vague notion of the future. Most commonly they just tell me they want to be rich and famous, without a clear idea of how to achieve either.

Three teachers from San Benito CISD received an all expense, tuition-paid scholarship towards earning a Master of Education (M.Ed.) degree in Early Childhood Special Education through the district’s partnership with the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Border SPICES (Special Interventionists in Childcare and Education Services) scholarship program.

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, Texas - The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley is one of 10 universities in Texas selected by The Raise Your Hand Texas Foundation to participate in the inaugural Raising Texas Teachers scholarship initiative.

It has been nearly 17 years since Congress passed a law involving Cuba. The last time was in 2000 when the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act allowed food products to be sold to Cuba on a cash only basis as an exception to the comprehensive embargo.

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s McAllen Teaching Site was crowded with eager IDEA high school students waiting to showcase their smart-farming robots, whose yield ultimately would determine the fate of their newly founded small businesses.

EDINBURG — As Angelica Rodriguez, a UTRGV graduate student and mother of two, hiked up the Salkantay Trek on her way to Machu Picchu, she began to question whether she would be able to make it through to the end.

BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS – JUNE 27, 2017 – UTRGV music students Doris Cedillo and Clemente Rivera captivated the audience at the Carlotta K. Petrina Cultural Center on Sunday, June 25, during an early evening recital.

ROMA, Texas — From a compact, portable shed on the outskirts of this border town, Jonathan Hoyt has an expansive field of vision. His computer is linked to cameras and surveillance equipment that allow him to see rubber rafts on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande nearly three miles away, simply by moving a tiny joystick.

Three UTRGV faculty members from the College of Liberal Arts and one professor from the College of Engineering and Computer Science have been honored with one of the highest and most prestigious awards in the nation that recognizes teaching excellence – the 2017 Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Awards (ROTA).

TAMPA — If President Donald Trump takes his cue from opponents of new and open relations with Cuba, he will decry how an influx of U.S. visitors there is filling the coffers of the Communist nation's military.

Just in time for summer reading, 30 Minutes features a panel from the 2017 Tucson Festival of Books from the Pima County Public Library/ Nuestras Raices Presentation Stage. Mari Herreras moderated this panel with authors Guadalupe Garcia McCall and Emmy Pérez entitled The Tejana: Another State of Mind Celebrating the Rio Grande Valley and the people that shaped it in poetry and prose.

Camp Energy in Mission is bustling with loud music, lively children and enthusiastic counselors. The campers dance, hike, canoe, and swim. And several times a day, they line up inside a colorful abode to have their blood sugar checked. Each camper is a child from the Valley with diabetes.

Emmy Pérez, UTRGV associate professor of creative writing and interim director of the Center for Mexican American Studies, has been selected as a 2017 Literature Fellow with the National Endowment for the Arts.

Last week the Texas Legislature agreed to give the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine $54.1 million for the next two years — $7.2 million short of what lawmakers approved in 2015 — pending the governor’s approval.

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley is one of only 24 institutions in the nation to receive $1 million in the first round of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Inclusive Excellence Initiative (IEI).

BROWNSVILLE, Texas - A local sorority is defying the stereotypes of Greek life. For these women in pink and maroon, they say its about self-esteem, empowerment and community service. One of our interns, Cynthia Carrizales is part of the Kappa Delta Chi Alpha Beta Chapter at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

Incoming freshmen looking to strengthen their math skills before the start of the Fall 2017 semester have until June 30 to apply to The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s Summer Bridge to Calculus program.

EDINBURG — University of Texas Rio Grande Valley President Guy Bailey sent an internal memo to faculty and staff Friday addressing new challenges brought on by the recently approved state budget that fell short of past state funding levels.

EDINBURG — After months of lobbying in Austin by the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine for state funding, state legislators produced the final numbers granting $54.1 million for the next two years for the newly created school, $7.2 million less than the last biennium.

HOUSTON, June 1, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - The Welch Foundation, one of the nation's largest sources of private funding for basic research, has announced its 2017 research grant funding, which totals nearly $25 million. The funds will be allocated over the next three years, with annual payouts of $8,315,000, all within the state of Texas.

MISSION — A federally-funded program that has been guiding and mentoring students on their way to college for 45 years was not only renewed this year, but received $13.9 million to also expand to more Rio Grande Valley communities over the next five years.

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS — Raul Martinez is on track to complete his bachelor’s degree in computer engineering a year ahead of schedule, thanks to a 12-credit tuition cost cap UTRGV offers to students who pay in-state tuition.

Hilda G. Rendon has been unanimously appointed by the San Benito CISD Board of Trustees to serve as the district’s Acting Superintendent effective Friday, June 9. Trustees appointed Rendon to serve in that capacity during a Special Board Meeting held on the evening of Wednesday, May 24.

MCALLEN – The national non-profit KaBOOM! named McAllen one of the 258 honorees with the 2017 Playful City USA designation for the seventh time. Playful City USA honors cities and towns across the country for putting kids first.

HOUSTON, May 17, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ - Thirty-one student teams from across the country will test their designs in simulated microgravity this year as part of NASA's Micro-g Neutral Buoyancy Experiment Design Teams (Micro-g NExT) activity. Test sessions will be May 22-27 and June 5-10.

Thirteen cadets from The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Reserve Officers’ Training Corps were commissioned as officers in the United States Army on Thursday, May 11, at a ceremony in the student union theater on the Edinburg Campus.

BROWNSVILLE, Texas — Almost two hundred years ago on May 16 a man who defeated the Texas Rangers twice, had a war named after him and is considered one of the first people to advocate for the rights of Mexicans and Mexican Americans on the Texas-Mexico border was born.

EDINBURG— After a few years filled with many transitions the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Police Department continues to reorganize in order to fit the needs of a widespread student population.

Texas State Technical College Veteran Program Officer Jose Villegas has been with the college for a short time, but has already made a difference in students’ lives earning the 2017 Chancellor’s Excellence Award.

McALLEN — News about the selection of a new dean for the fledgling University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine broke Thursday afternoon and now the institution is getting ready to turn another page with new leadership.

The University of Texas System Board of Regents has approved two new graduate degree programs for The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley – one, a Doctor of Philosophy in clinical psychology, and the other, a Master of Science in civil engineering.

Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas Department of State Health Services Commissioner John Hellerstedt were in Brownsville on Friday to deliver an emphatic message to local officials: Get the jump on Zika before it gets the jump on us.

More than 100 faculty and staff members from the Brownsville, Harlingen and Edinburg campuses of The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley participated in the first Teaching and Learning Symposium held May 5 at the Edinburg Campus.

BROWNSVILLE, Texas - Governor Abbott visits the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley to discuss Zika. Cameron County is the first and only region so far where the virus has been acquired locally in the state of Texas.

Dr. Shervin Fatehi, a UTRGV assistant professor of chemistry, has received a three-year, $195,000 grant from the Robert A. Welch Foundation to research accurate methods for simulating the motions of molecules and the flow of energy and charge within and between them.

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley ADVANCE Leadership Institute held a graduation celebration for its fifth cohort of faculty members who successfully completed the program during the Spring 2017 semester.

BROWNSVILLE, Texas - How often do you remember how you’re feeling? When was the last time you felt happy?. It’s not taboo to tell a family member or friend they have a cold and should go to the doctor.

The detection of gravitational waves topped nearly every chart highlighting the most important science stories of 2016. LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, made headlines by detecting direct evidence of ripples in spacetime caused by two merging black holes. Historic and exciting, this discovery will probably be the first of many gravitational wave signals we see over the coming years—and not all of them will come from gravitational wave observatories.

HARLINGEN — It was an evening of dramatic, emotional storytelling. The story of Kassy Elizondo, a 13-year-old, was told because one of the rooms in the Valley Haven Emergency Children’s Shelter in Harlingen is named after the young girl who loved everyone but passed away last year.

A former banking executive has been named president of the Greater Mission Chamber of Commerce. Robert Rosell, a former assistant vice-president and corporate compliance officer for BBVA Compass Bank was introduced to Mission’s mayor and city council during the council’s April 24 regular meeting. It was Rosell’s first day on the job.

In the canned goods aisle, she tries to hush her son who is pretending to shoot people with his toy gun. He doesn’t listen to her, and he obstructs her way to the canned tomato sauce she needs. She told her husband to not let their son take his toy gun with them.

BROWNSVILLE, Texas — The promise of a "big, beautiful wall" along America's southern border was a cornerstone of President Donald Trump's campaign. From the moment he announced it during his candidacy kickoff address in June 2015, the proposal was hit with charges of racism and questions of effectiveness.

LOS ANGELES - April 28, 2017 - PRLog - Joe Steven has announced the release of his new EP titled "Relentless Love." The singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist began playing piano at the age of 8 and has continued to compose songs leading up to his exciting debut release.

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s Office of Community Engagement and Assessment presented its Distinguished Community Engagement Partner Award to the City of Edinburg Solid Waste Management and the United Way of South Texas for providing learning and volunteer opportunities to students.

AUSTIN — State Rep. Oscar Longoria, D-La Joya, has been appointed to the powerful Conference Committee for the state’s appropriations bill which will determine funding for state agencies, including the Valley’s new medical school, for the 2018-19 biennium.

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – APRIL 20, 2017 – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley has been identified as one of the best value colleges for a bachelor’s degree in anthropology, in a recent ranking by College Values Online.com.

RIO GRANDE VALLEY – APRIL 20, 2017 – Day two of the annual Engaged Scholar Symposium that showcases undergraduate student research and engagement projects in the community continued April 19 at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s Edinburg Campus.

The Office of Sustainability at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley held their annual Earth Fest, Wednesday, April 19, which brought sustainable living experts and representatives to the campus to promote how we can make a difference in our environment each day.

On a recent morning in Nuevo Laredo, Marciano Santiago sat in a white plastic folding chair waiting his turn to use the phone at the Instituto Tamaulipeco para los Migrantes, a state agency that provides humanitarian assistance to migrants.

Nine students from The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s UTeach program presented their research findings at the ninth annual Understanding Interventions that Broaden Participation in Science Careers conference.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick brought relief to many in the Rio Grande Valley by appointing state Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa to the critical budget conference committee on Tuesday, a move that could be beneficial for the new medical school.

BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS – APRIL 19, 2017 – The annual Engaged Scholar Symposium that recognizes undergraduate student research and community engagement opened its first day on the Brownsville Campus of The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley on Tuesday, April 18.

Donald Trump said during the presidential campaign that he wanted to keep “bad hombres” out of the country. He told the Mexican president, according to documents obtained by the Associated Press, that he wanted Mexico to stop "bad hombres down there" from coming across the southern border of the US.

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, Texas - The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley has named two Student Employees of the Year, during ceremonies held for the university’s National Student Employment Appreciation Week.

Dr. Art Brownlow, professor of music in the UTRGV Department of Music, is one of just four UT System faculty members inducted April 11 into The University of Texas System Academy of Distinguished Teachers.

A new chapter in the life of Colorado State University-Pueblo began Friday at the Belmont campus. And Timothy Mottet, who was introduced as the school's 15th president, is just as diverse as the institution itself.

Havana (AFP) – In Cuba, it sometimes seems time stopped in the 1960s. Despite a succession of sweeping changes in recent years — rapprochement with the US, Fidel Castro’s death — the rhythm of life on the island remains as languid as ever.

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS—APRIL 10, 2017—The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine gave prospective students who have been accepted for its second cohort a chance to take another close look at its campuses.

Donald Trump said during the presidential campaign that he wanted to keep “bad hombres” out of the country. He told the Mexican president, according to documents obtained by the Associated Press, that he wanted Mexico to stop "bad hombres down there" from coming across the southern border of the US.

SAN BENITO — It’s like Facebook but for volunteering. Three new volunteer platforms have been introduced to the community, making it easier for the volunteer and organization to recruit and track opportunities.

With the end of the academic year approaching, many faculty members are thinking about the few months that will follow and the promise of huge chunks of uninterrupted time to write and do research. In short, they’re dreaming of a summer of maximum productivity.

Laguna Vista resident Dr. Terence Garrett, professor and chair of the Public Affairs and Security Studies Department at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) was one of three expert witnesses who provided testimony in a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing on the topic of border fencing between the U.S. and Mexico.

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, Texas - Dr. Alejandro Bocanegra, a second-year resident in the Family Medicine residency program at Doctors Hospital at Renaissance, has been named 2017 Resident of the Year by the National Hispanic Medical Association.

The American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc. (AOTA) has named Dr. Shirley Wells, chair and associate professor in the Department of Occupational Therapy at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, as one of the 100 Influential People in Occupational Therapy (OT).

Veronica Gonzales is a recognized leader in the public and private sectors as an attorney, mediator, legislator, fundraiser and now working in government and community relations for The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

This Edinburg native is a trained pianist and a promoter of the arts, using her various positions at the University of Texas-Pan American and then the University of Texas Rio Grande to bring cultural awareness to the area.

Hollywood will pay a pretty penny for an actor to master the elusive Texas accent and all that comes with it, but the Texas Standard may save the silver screen a ton of money with its newest segment on Texas Grammar:

A local lawmaker has drafted legislation to evaluate the effect that designated “bilingual zones” would have on compelling local and state governments to conduct official business in both English and Spanish.

EDINBURG— The Texas Senate is scheduled to vote on a state budget this week and local officials are scrambling to overcome what they fear could be a detrimental shortfall in funding for the year-old University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine.

Did you notice a fresh burst of energy at AACTE’s Annual Meeting this year? Then you might have been lucky enough to interact with the high school students from the South Texas Independent School District (STISD) who attended as participants in the AACTE Holmes Program.

At 35, the 449th State District Court judge is the youngest district court judge in Texas. She is also the second-ever juvenile judge elected to the court. Rodriguez-Betancourt ran based on her experience working alongside school districts in Texas.

A math teacher, web page designer, aeronautical engineer and jeweler-cum- party designer are the latest recipients of grants from Mission’s Economic Development Corporation, each of whom have start up businesses in Mission.

EDINBURG— A recent safety study at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley revealed 5 percent of surveyed students said to have been raped since enrollment, 16 percent reported being sexually harassed by classmates and 11 percent by university faculty.

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – MARCH 24, 2017 – In an ongoing effort to provide the safest learning environment possible for students, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), in conjunction with The University of Texas System (UTS), announced Friday the results of an unprecedented, in-depth student survey that looks at the prevalence, perceptions and experiences around a range of acts of sexual assault and misconduct that affect students.

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – MARCH 24, 2017 – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley has been ranked #22 among the more than 170 colleges and universities in Texas on a list of most beautiful campuses in the state.

Dr. Philip Zwerling, associate professor of creative writing and director of the Creative Writing Program at UTRGV: Multiple “Big Brothers,” a la “Brave New World” and “1984,” are watching and listening now. Can our democracy survive unlimited surveillance? The short answer is: No.

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS—MARCH 17, 2017— The UTRGV School of Medicine this year on Match Day 2017 has gained 56 new medical residents, who will begin their post-graduate training here in six specialties throughout the Valley.

The order has been issued for the immediate construction of a Mexico border wall. The specs have been outlined: 30 feet high and “aesthetically pleasing.” The next thing on President Trump's to-do list for building his “big, beautiful wall”: Hire more lawyers for a long and expensive battle over private land.

Nereida Lopez-Singleterry, who graduated from UTPA in 2001 with a Bachelor of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies, has been appointed new Associate Judge of the Title IV-D Court, Master Court 1 in Hidalgo County.

EDINBURG — While lawmakers in Austin weigh the merits of a proposed bill requiring transgender people to use public restrooms corresponding with their biological sex, local healthcare stakeholders are moving to prioritize transgender health care.

A Texas state senator has filed a bill that could possibly end yearly vehicle inspections.Officially known as Senate Bill 1588, Sen. Don Huffines, R-Dallas, filed the bill earlier this month that would repeal the requirement for all passenger vehicles to receive a state-certified inspection.

BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) - While it’s common for the nation’s heavyweight higher education institutions to rake in National Science Foundation grants, it’s exceedingly rare for smaller, younger institutions like the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

Four Latina poets and writers donated material to the Special Collections and Archives Department of The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley during FESTIBA, the Festival of International Books and Arts.

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley has been recognized by the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society as one of the top four-year universities in the country for creating a dynamic pathway to support community college transfer.

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – MARCH 9, 2017 – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley has named Dr. Sarah Williams-Blangero as the endowed chair of the H-E-B Distinguished Chair in Diabetes and Genomics for the South Texas Diabetes and Obesity Institute.

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – MARCH 8, 2017 – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley held a two-day celebration of International Women’s Day, a global celebration since 1975 of the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women past, present and future.

EDINBURG, TEXAS – MARCH 6, 2017 – A panel of physicians, educators and artists shared their experiences and opinions on the connection between arts and sciences and the subsequent benefits, at a special panel during UTRGV’s Festival of International Books and Arts (FESTIBA).

An oral history project taught South Texas high school students to look for strength and pride in things that others dismiss as unimportant. That lesson now undergirds efforts to create the nation's first bilingual university.

Dr. Enrique Reynoso, Jr., assistant professor of English writing, began teaching at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville in fall 2016. He teaches Technical Writing; Writing, Editing and Publishing in Multiple Media; College Writing and News Writing, and is piloting Business Writing this spring.

EDINBURG — United States Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera headlined the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s annual Festival of International Books and Arts (FESTIBA) Thursday, speaking at the Performing Arts Complex. The National Endowment of the Arts’ (NEA) Big Read keynote panel focused on “Literature and Social Justice.”

EDINBURG - U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera and Texas-based author and publisher Bryce Milligan stressed the importance literature has in promoting social justice and encouraged students to use their literary voices to uplift their communities and speak out against injustice.

When the development offices of massive, astoundingly wealthy universities such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and Columbia make their pitches to prospective donors, the No. 1 message is always the same: financial aid.

EDINBURG, TEXAS – MARCH 1, 2017 – As the twice-seated U.S. poet laureate, Juan Felipe Herrera admits he often walks a fine diplomatic line between not naming names and bridging political and cultural gaps, especially in today’s unique climate.

DALLAS, Feb. 28, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - Every August approximately 27,000 first-year teachers enter classrooms across Texas. And while the state leads the nation in providing the largest number and most varied pathways to become an educator, the current system does not ensure teachers are well prepared. As a result, Texas students – whose academic success is deeply affected by the quality of teachers – suffer the consequences.

While it’s common for the nation’s heavyweight higher education institutions to rake in National Science Foundation grants, it’s exceedingly rare for smaller, younger institutions like the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

Scientists are racing to document rare plants and animal species in Cambodia found nowhere else in the world before they are lost forever. Why? Because they are only present in limestone cliffs known as karsts which are being ground up to make cement to fuel Cambodia's building boom.

The question of the day is: Are you smart?” professor José Saldívar announced at the start of class. “Don’t just give me a yes-or-no answer. Tell me why.” Seated in a sparkling new classroom at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s Edinburg campus, with rolling chairs in the school colors — blue, green and burnt orange — students inched closer together to debate the value of innate ability versus hard work.

Edinburg native and award-winning CBS News national correspondent Mireya Villarreal urged local high school students to find something in which they’re passionate, believe in and improve themselves daily.

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – FEB. 24, 2017 – A revolutionary race relations class conducted by Dr. Peter Kranz in the 1970s soon will be the subject of a book that chronicles the class’s indelible impact on its students, and its possibilities to address racial and ethnic discord today.

BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS – FEB. 24, 2017 – Solidarity, mutual respect and a call for peace were the overriding themes of Charreada 2017, hosted by The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and Texas Southmost College on Thursday, Feb. 23.

BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS – FEB. 22, 2017 – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley College of Education and P-16 Integration recently hosted a group of 22 education specialists from Peru on the Brownsville Campus.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley has been selected, along with five other universities in the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), to participate in a national initiative called the “Frontier Set” project, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Officials in the United States are expected to discuss border security and immigration later this week. As Mexicans protest President Donald Trump's wall and undocumented immigrants get rounded up, some living in the US border state Texas are offering a more inclusive approach.

UMB Bank, a subsidiary of UMB Financial Corporation (Nasdaq: UMBF), announces it has hired Lana Harris as vice president of commercial business development. In her role, she is responsible for leading business development activities while supporting clients and associates.

PHARR, TEXAS – FEB. 17, 2017 – Officials from The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Independent School District on Feb. 15 celebrated the launch of the future site of the district’s Early Head Start campus.

WESLACO — A project one-year-in the making is moving forward as the University of Texas Board of Regents gave the green light for UT Rio Grande Valley to lease space in the upcoming business incubator in Weslaco.

You likely know a thing or two about the underground railroad that helped hundreds escape to the north. But just 15 minutes outside of McAllen there are forgotten pieces of a lesser-known underground railroad that went in a southerly direction.

BROWNSVILLE – A building in Brownsville built without permits is going up near Boca Chica Village. The problem is no one seems to know where the water and sewer is coming from and why they were allowed to build without a permit.

BROWNSVILLE – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley College of Education and P-16 Integration will host a group of 24 education specialists and ministers from Peru on Friday, Feb. 17, on the Brownsville Campus.

BOCA RATON, FL - (Marketwired - February 13, 2017) - Campus Management Corp. today announced that The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) will use the CampusNexus® CRM solution to transform the way it connects and engages with constituents.

AUSTIN - The results for Friday's South Padre Island Winter Cleanup and Saturday's Coastal Bend Winter Cleanup organized by the Adopt-A-Beach program of the Texas General Land Office are in. At the Winter Texan Cleanup at Andy Bowie Park on South Padre Island, 721 volunteers showed up to remove 54,075 pounds of trash from five miles of Texas coastline. The Coastal Bend Winter Cleanuphad 730 volunteers at eight sites who removed 18,406 pounds of trash from 30.5 miles of beach.

The Valley Baptist Legacy Foundation is to be commended not only for its generous $15 million gift to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s School of Medicine — but for the perfect timing in announcing the gift.

EDINBURG— Healthcare officials and epidemiologist representing 11 states from both sides of the United States-Mexico border met at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley this week to plan a pilot program aimed at monitoring mosquitoes capable of spreading viruses such as Zika as a preventive measure.

Dr. Veronica Estrada, UTRGV professor in the College of Education and P-16 Education, accepted an honor Jan. 30 at the national inaugural Conference on Academic Research in Education (CARE) in Las Vegas.

HARLINGEN, TEXAS – FEB. 9, 2017 – The South Texas Environmental Education and Research (STEER) Program at The UTRGV School of Medicine has been selected to receive the university’s 2017 Community Engaged Scholarship Champions Award.

Dr. Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, UTRGV associate professor of Public Affairs and Security Studies, was in Washington, D.C., to participate in a panel discussion Feb. 7 on “Crime and Violence in Latin America and the Caribbean: Prevention and Migration.”

Dr. Steven A. Lieberman, interim dean of The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s School of Medicine, on Feb. 8 gave the Board of Regents’ Health Affairs Committee an update on the progress of the UT System’s newest medical school.

EDINBURG — The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Performing Arts Center swarmed with students and area residents Wednesday evening anxiously waiting to see actress and equal rights advocate Laverne Cox.

EDINBURG — With a statewide hiring freeze in place until at least August of this year, officials at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley are preparing to begin submitting waivers in order to fill necessary positions, especially for the new School of Medicine.

The University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley has announced a $15 million gift from the Valley Baptist Legacy Foundation to create an institute for neuroscience research and education on its Harlingen campus.

While construction on the SpaceX site is underway at Boca Chica Beach, Boca Chica Village resident Sam Clauson has concerns about the STARGATE property, which is being built by the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

Building material company 84 Lumber featured their version of the border wall and its “big beautiful door” Sunday during the Super Bowl with a commercial and accompanying web video that fueled the already raging immigration debate nationwide.

After decades of division, the Rio Grande Valley has improved its cohesion over the past several years. There is still frequent Valley tension, but the birth of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley is perhaps the largest example of the Valley working to be united.

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), in partnership with the Dustin Michael Sekula Memorial Library in Edinburg, is the recipient of a $16,000 grant to host the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Big Read program.

General Motors announced Jorge Plata Moreno as the new CEO of OnStar Mexico. Plata Moreno Takes over for Michael Szachta in the role, and will lead the GM subsidiary in its operations as overseer for the implementing of 4G LTE and various other technological advances.

Scobee Education Center bid farewell Jan. 31 to planetarium Director Bob Kelley, who spent the last 39 years overseeing planetarium operations while also coordinating and presenting close to 14,000 planetarium shows to nearly 1 million people.

When President Trump ordered that construction begin immediately on the "big, beautiful, powerful wall" he had promised his supporters, he probably wasn’t imagining the green, 10-foot-high fence that runs along the southern perimeter of the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley.

HARLINGEN, TEXAS – JAN. 27, 2017 – Dr. Leonel Vela, senior associate dean for Education and Academic Affairs at The UTRGV School of Medicine, participated in a panel discussion with leaders from three area hospitals Thursday night and provided an update on the SOM’s progress for visiting legislators.

Sea-level rise isn’t the only aspect of climate change expected to affect coastal wetlands: changes in rainfall and temperature are predicted to transform wetlands in the Gulf of Mexico and around the world within the century.

EDINBURG – In light of recent events threatening the status of immigrants in the United States, students at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley met with President Guy Bailey on Monday asking for a public stance to protect students.

The John H. Hunter Collection, featuring a treasure trove of early Brownsville history in the form of books, maps and other documents, will have a new home at Market Square thanks to an agreement between the Brownsville Historical Association, Texas Southmost College and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

EDINBURG – With an anticipated highly active mosquito season right around the corner, local officials and two University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley professors are partnering to better collect, examine and share information on potential spreading viruses such as Zika and West Nile.

McALLEN – Most presenters at a Border Economics forecast conference on Friday didn’t account for President Donald Trump potentially imposing a 20-percent tax on all Mexican imports, which the White House announced on Thursday.

EDINBURG– Preparations for one of the year’s biggest performances began last September for the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s Tuba and Euphonium Ensemble. In just a few weeks, the group will be traveling to Washington to perform as the only college at the U.S. Army Band Tuba Euphonium Workshop.

EDINBURG – Miscommunication and timing issues during the creation of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley are confirmed to be behind a recent decision by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges’ decision to place the university on probation, university officials and new documents say.

When University of Texas Rio Grande Valley theater professor and playwright Eric Wiley was introduced to the local Winter Texan community nearly 20 years ago, he said he immediately saw the comedic potential of that group.

More than half of Americans, and 61 percent of internet users, utilize online banking, according to a 2013 Pew Research Center report. But University of Texas Rio Grande Valley information systems associate professor Jerald Hughes isn’t one of them.

MCALLEN, Texas - With President Donald Trump in the the White House, undocumented immigrant and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipient Maria Ibarra, 23, said communities like hers feel that their rights may be in jeopardy. But many like her are taking action to make sure that doesn't happen.

As a scholar, Aída Hurtado has marked multiple firsts in her study and teaching of Chicana/o studies and feminist theory. And now she’s made history of another kind, as a featured speaker at the recent Women’s March in Washington D.C., said to be the largest such civic event ever in the U.S.

EDINBURG – Fifteen years ago University of Texas Rio Grande Valley President Guy Bailey learned a lesson: If he wanted full control over at least a portion of a university system’s assets, one way is to make good use of annual bonuses.

COLLEGE STATION – Texas A&M AgriLife recently received a substantial monetary boost to bolster its aggressive fight to stem the spread of vector-borne diseases for the public good, said Dr. David Ragsdale, Texas A&M University entomology department head at College Station.

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – DEC. 29, 2016 – From its first cohort of medical students, to the naming of its business college, to a football feasibility committee headed by Mack Brown and an international prize for a physics discovery, UTRGV’s second year of operations was packed with student and faculty accomplishments that highlight the ongoing success of the university community.

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – DEC. 26, 2016 – As 2016 closes, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley marks its bricks-and-mortar growth with four buildings currently under construction and two more buildings recently approved for construction by The UT System Board of Regents.

EDINBURG – With a new grant of $1.25 million on hand, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley is getting ready to open the first Industrial Assessment Center in South Texas to help local manufacturers become energy efficient.

Bill Fannin has filled many roles in his academic career from dean to interim president, but now he’s filling one of his favorites as a full professor in management at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin.

A recent study from a pair of academics specializing on border issues finds a wide degree of overlap between coyotes and drug traffickers along the US-Mexico border, with government policies helping to encourage the blurring of the lines between the two illicit activities.

The posada is a religious celebration that commemorates the days leading up to the birth of Jesus. It centers on the biblical figures of Mary and Joseph and their plea for shelter as Mary prepares to give birth.

The UTRGV College of Engineering and Computer Science has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy to house the South Texas Industrial Assessment Center and has been awarded a $1.25 million grant to fund the five-year project. The STIAC will provide industrial energy assessments, at no cost, to local small- and medium-size enterprises, potentially helping manufacturers save millions of dollars each year in energy, productivity and water management costs.

Guy Bailey, president of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, recently said that formally declaring UTRGV a sanctuary university would be unwise, and even counterproductive. At least for the short term, he’s probably right.

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – DEC. 19, 2016 – Fourteen new historical highway and street signs marking the Rio Grande Valley Civil War Trail have been erected throughout Brownsville, including several on the campuses of The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and Texas Southmost College.

MCALLEN, TEXAS – DEC. 17, 2016 – More than 1,900 graduates from The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley were all smiles as they accepted their degrees during the Fall 2016 Commencement Ceremonies on Saturday, Dec. 17.

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – DEC 17, 2016 – Luis Basurto, 23, travelled from his new job in Washington, D.C., to be one of 502 summer 2016 graduates who were able to walk in UTRGV’s fall 2016 commencement ceremonies.

EDINBURG, TEXAS – DEC. 16, 2016 – The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) and the UTRGV Office of the Provost has announced that the university have been awarded the designation of Center for Sustainability Across Curriculum.

SAN JUAN – A simple handshake first helped Hector M. Cerda begin a budding career that has landed him the position of aerospace engineer at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley received the most serious sanction short of completely removing its accreditation, the agency who awards accreditation said in a public disclosure statement released late Thursday.

After three McAllen commission meetings delaying a decision about making a promised payment to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley for its medical school, Mayor Jim Darling met with UT System Chancellor William McRaven for an hour in Austin on Wednesday.

BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS –DEC. 15, 2015 – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s Center for Teaching Excellence, a dedicated location where faculty can meet and network, is now open on the Brownsville Campus.

EDINBURG – A bump along a very complicated road – that is how some local politicians and University of Texas officials are taking recent news of UT-Rio Grande Valley’s accreditation being placed on probationary status.

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – DEC. 13, 2016 – Students at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley are carrying on a tradition that began in 2011 at The University of Texas at Brownsville – the practice of ringing the university bell at the close of the commencement ceremonies in May and December.

EDINBURG – Even if the term “sanctuary campus” is not adopted by the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, administrators, faculty and students are meeting halfway to ensure the student’s concerns are acknowledged.

McALLEN, TEXAS – DEC. 12, 2016 – Twenty-six articulation agreements signed Dec. 12 between The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and South Texas College will ensure a seamless pathway for students to move from an associate’s degree at STC to earning their bachelor’s degree at UTRGV.

Obviously, the news this week that the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley has been placed on probation by an accreditation agency is a setback for this fledgling institution that plays such a significant role in our region.

AUSTIN, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has appointed Benjamin A. Montañez and Randy H. Skinner and reappointed Yvonne S. “Bonnie” Brown to the OneStar Foundation Board for terms set to expire March 15, 2019. The OneStar Foundation provides technical assistance, education, information and other support to Texas’ extensive volunteer community, and improving and strengthening the state’s volunteerism and community service infrastructure.

University of Texas Rio Grande Valley sent the City of McAllen an invoice for $2 million on Nov. 9, the day after the election, but the city commission has not yet acted on it. The description on the invoice, obtained by The Monitor, said this is per the memorandum of understanding between UTRGV and McAllen – funds for fiscal year 2016.

EDINBURG, TX. Since 1988 many observe World AIDS Day. This is a day to show support for those living with HIV and remembering those that died. Some are trying to bring awareness to this issue. An STD roulette spun but no one wanted to know where it stops. That seems to be the attitude some have towards sexually transmitted diseases.

EDINBURG – With three simple commands – begin simulation, pause simulation and end simulation – aspiring teachers at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley are getting a taste of the challenges of a real classroom.

EDINBURG, TEXAS – NOV. 30, 2016 – Before students from The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley College of Education and P-16 Integration get into a real-life classroom setting, they now will have a chance to fine-tune their craft with some feisty, challenging student avatars in a virtual reality environment.

Fidel Castro had once called former United States president George W. Bush a “functional illiterate”. Former US president Ronald Reagan was “the worst terrorist in the history of mankind”, Castro said, with ideas “from the Buffalo Bill era”

EDINBURG – Officials at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley have announced further details on plans to roll out the previously announced $5 million in salary increases for faculty and staff starting this year.

A partnership between The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s College of Education and P-16 Integration and the Harlingen CISD to improve teacher preparation field experience for bilingual teachers was in the spotlight Nov. 3-4 at the national Teach to Lead summit in Washington, D.C.

EDINBURG – What started as a initiative by business students at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley to donate 25 Thanksgiving meals turned into an effort that provided 180 meals to families in some of the Valley’s poorest colonias.

LOS EBANOS, Texas (AP) – All along the winding Rio Grande, the people who live in this bustling, fertile region where the U.S. border meets the Gulf of Mexico never quite understood how Donald Trump's great wall could ever be much more than campaign rhetoric.

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – NOV. 22, 2016 – On his 22nd day of employment at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Dr. Steven Block spoke at the ceremonial construction launch March 22, 2016 of the $54 million Academic Building on the Brownsville Campus.

Four UTRGV students from the university’s College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) recently presented at the annual Association for Migrant Educators of Texas (AMET) conference, held this year on South Padre Island.

Art connoisseurs enjoyed an afternoon of workshops on printmaking, photography, UTRGV Radio, virtual reality, Humans of UTRGV and building a social media profile Saturday in historic downtown Brownsville.

EDINBURG, Texas. A group of students from the UTRGV has submitted a petition to the school's president to make the university a sanctuary campus. We report on how the uncertainty of their future in this country has led the students to submit that petition.

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – NOV. 18, 2016 – Three UTRGV students won awards and a total of $750 in cash prizes at a recent poster presentation contest, at the annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students in Tampa, Florida.

EDINBURG, TEXAS – NOV. 18, 2016 – Students from the UTRGV chapter of Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) recently hosted the group’s first public health fair, in the Ballroom on the UTRGV Edinburg Campus.

Martha Feldtman Noell worked stoically inside her office on Tuesday, seeming somewhat unfazed by her upcoming retirement culminating a 30-year career. And while the occasion would normally warrant some sentiment from most people, she’s not most people.

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – NOV. 10, 2016 – Eight UTRGV students have earned the university’s first ever post-master’s Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner(PMHNP) certification, awarded by the School of Nursing in the College of Health Affairs.

McALLEN, TEXAS – NOV. 9, 2016 – The presidents of 11 South Texas banks got to share their thoughts on the morning-after impact of the recent presidential election, during the annual Border Economics, Development and Entrepreneurship Symposium (BEDES) held Nov. 9 at the Embassy Suites Hotel in McAllen.

EDINBURG – Another accreditation agency has granted the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s nursing program full accreditation in yet another step in the transition from the university’s legacy institutions.

Millennials, the country’s youngest group of voters, are now tied with Baby Boomers as the largest portion of the electorate, making up 31 percent of eligible voters. While a staggering 139,380 Hidalgo County residents voted early, few are expected to be younger than 35.

Washington, D.C. - Congressman Rubén Hinojosa (TX-15)announced that the National Science Foundation has awarded a more than $571,000 grant to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, starting November 15, 2016 for an anticipated total of three years.

Sharing her knowledge of Hispanic socioeconomic outcomes at a national level has become a frequent experience for Dr. Marie T. Mora, associate vice provost for Faculty Diversity and professor of economics at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

EDINBURG – To help find creative solutions to sustainable waste management practices, students in the UTRGV Environmental Sociology program will dedicate their weekend learning the ins and outs of the City of Edinburg’s Department of Solid Waste Management.

MCALLEN – UTRGV Continuing Education and the Food Bank of the Rio Grande Valley are starting the season of giving with a special Healthy Holidays Lunch and Learn fundraiser, to promote healthy eating and making educated food choices throughout the holidays and beyond.

LAS VEGAS (AP) – Nevada already has legal brothels, round-the-clock casinos and a coy catchphrase declaring that "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." If voters approve, the state could soon add another vice in the form of recreational marijuana.

Texas A&M Corpus Christi has nearly 12,000 students, and 45 miles away about 9,000 study at Texas A&M Kingsville. However the two campuses could soon be combined into one university with an enrollment of more than 20,000.

Alberto Dávila, professor of economics at the University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley, and Tom Fullerton, professor of finance at the University of Texas at El Paso, spoke Wednesday evening in the Stark Lecture Hall in the Gerdin Business Building about free trade between Mexico and the United States.

EDINBURG, Texas. The rise in the number of Zika cases reported south of the border and closer to Texas, is raising concerns for scientists and researchers in the Rio Grande Valley. We tell you about the project a UTRGV professor and his grad students are doing. Their work could to help prevent the spread of the virus and possibly find a cure for it.

As early as age 4 Karen Lozano knew she wanted to be a scientist. At that young age, she also had the mature understanding there weren’t many female examples to follow, let alone many Latinas in the science professions.

EDINBURG – A five-year-old tradition that originated at the University of Texas at Brownsville honoring local business leaders made its way to Edinburg on Friday with the inaugural Business Leader’s Lunch.

EDINBURG, Texas. Texas Secretary of State Carlos Cascos is traveling across the Lone Star State to promote his ‘Vote Texas’ campaign. Today he visited UTRGV students to promote the importance of voting among the millennial population.

Although the mood and ambience at a groundbreaking on Wednesday morning for the long-awaited UTRGV research facility in McAllen was upbeat and congratulatory, the underlying tensions leading up to this event was the unstated elephant in the tent.

McALLEN – Health, education and political leaders gathered Wednesday at what is now empty land adjacent to Doctors Hospital at Renaissance to break ground on what will soon be the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s first research facility in McAllen.

McALLEN, TEXAS – OCT. 26, 2016 – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Doctors Hospital at Renaissance Health System and the City of McAllen celebrated the groundbreaking Oct. 26 of a new research facility designed to transform the Rio Grande Valley in terms of expanded research opportunities, improved healthcare and increased economic development.

After evaluating recent expenses, needs and promises, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley President Guy Bailey announced a soft hiring freeze that will allow the school to roll out about $5 million in pay raises.

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley celebrated the completion of a school-within-a-college model at its Edinburg campus that is giving Hidalgo County high school students the option of starting their college experience in their junior year.

Dahlia Guerra remembers Edinburg native Willy Shives dancing as a kid. “You saw him in a crowd, and he would just grab your attention,” said Guerra, who is now the assistant vice president for Public Art at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

EDINBURG, TEXAS – OCT. 21, 2016 – Referring to the Robert Frost poem, “The Road Not Taken,” 16-year-old Andrea Morrison said she and her classmates at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Mathematics and Science Academy (MSA) had to decide which path they wanted to follow.

EDINBURG, TEXAS – OCT. 21, 2016 – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Rajabhat Maha Sarakham University (RMU), a nonprofit university in the Muang District in northeastern Thailand.

My favorite snack as a teenager was a Dr Pepper with salty peanuts. You remember: you pour the peanuts into the Dr Pepper and let them float around and season the drink. Didn’t get much better than that.

As I reflect on the highly successful 15th year of the Hispanic Engineering, Science, and Technology (HESTEC) conference hosted earlier this month by the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), I am reminded once again how rewarding it is to witness thousands of young women and men of diverse ethnicities aspire to learn and achieve in STEM fields. Every year, I am amazed by the powerful impact of the week-long HESTEC conference on students and families in South Texas

That was one of the messages ‘Enchilada Queen’ Sylvia Casares, owner of Sylvia’s Enchilada Kitchen, wanted to share with people at the 9th annual Petals on the Lake event Tuesday night on the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Brownsville campus.

Several eye-opening pieces have been published in The Monitor and local news outlets recently regarding a proposed Hidalgo County Healthcare District, otherwise known as Proposition 1, which is on the upcoming Nov. 8 ballot.

The Rio Grande Valley is one of the fastest growing regions in the state and nation, and one of the most medically underserved. Hidalgo County has nearly 1 million residents and 33 percent of those are under 65 years of age and lack health insurance. One in four residents of Hidalgo County and surrounding communities has diabetes, and Hidalgo County is one of the largest urban areas without a public hospital.

The University of Texas celebrated the career and accomplishments of Rio Grande Valley native Eugene “Gene” Powell on Friday evening with his induction into the UT McCombs School of Business Hall of Fame.

The talents of student musicians from both the Brownsville and Edinburg campuses melded harmoniously under the baton of Maestro Peter Dabrowski during the inaugural performances of the UTRGV Symphony Orchestra at both campuses.

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – OCT. 11, 2016 – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley is continuing its efforts to prepare graduates in healthcare professions by expanding the number of students admitted to the Master of Physician Assistant Studies (MPAS) program.

HUNTINGTON - Marshall University's A.E. Stringer Visiting Writers Series will host a reading and cultural discussion panel to observe Hispanic Heritage Month and to celebrate and promote diversity within and around the university and greater Huntington communities, according to a release from the university.

McALLEN – The second cohort of Rio Grande Valley professors and teachers are receiving training on how to better engage and understand the skills needed by students in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

HARLINGEN – After a full day of competition, Harlingen High School won HESTEC 2016’s Navy SeaPerch Underwater Robotic Challenge, held yesterday for the first time at the Harlingen CISD Aquatics Center.

EDINBURG, Texas. The Nursing Program at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley was recently ranked as one of the best in the nation. News Center 23's Jose Saenz tells why the program received that recognition, and why students are choosing over other programs.

Continuing to spark students' interests in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), Sailors of Navy Recruiting District (NRD) San Antonio and Navy City Outreach Southwest Region put students' ingenuity to the test with a SeaPerch Competition held at the Harlingen Aquatic Center during the 15th Annual Hispanic Engineering, Science and Technology (HESTEC) Week, Oct. 7.

EDINBURG, Texas (NNS) - "Celebrating 15 Years" is the theme of the 2016 Hispanic Engineering, Science, and Technology (HESTEC) Week held on the campus of the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), Oct. 3-6.

We’re half way through Hispanic Heritage Month, which continues until Oct. 15. But while many might see that celebration as an opportunity to more fully appreciate the Latino culture’s past, Toyota’s truck plant in San Antonio, Texas, has chosen to place its focus squarely on the future.

HUNTINGTON - Marshall University's A.E. Stringer Visiting Writers Series will host a reading and cultural discussion panel to observe Hispanic Heritage Month and to celebrate and promote diversity within and around the university and greater Huntington communities, according to a release from the university.

ALAMO – Roberto Gomez Jr., was a saint, a mentor and a father figure, in the words of many in the Pharr-Alamo-San Juan school district. His official title was director of PSJA Memorial Early College High School’s theater department.

McALLEN – The second cohort of Rio Grande Valley professors and teachers are receiving training on how to better engage and understand the skills needed by students in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

HARLINGEN – After a full day of competition, Harlingen High School won HESTEC 2016’s Navy SeaPerch Underwater Robotic Challenge, held yesterday for the first time at the Harlingen CISD Aquatics Center.

EDINBURG, RGV – Presiding over his last HESTEC as a member of Congress, Rubén Hinojosa said he was moved beyond words by the inspiring speech given by Sara Martinez Tucker, a UT System Regent originally from Laredo.

EDINBURG – Female students from the Region One ESC and their mothers were teamed against each other to see who could inflate a 5-foot-long tubular balloon the fastest, during a breakout session led by UTRGV mechanical engineering professor Karen Lozano, during HESTEC’s Latina Day on Oct. 5.

EDINBURG – High school seniors from Lasara and La Villa high schools were tasked with finding out what was causing a 13-year-old boy to have extreme fatigue, during a breakout session featuring the School of Medicine at HESTEC 2016’s Student Leadership Day.

EDINBURG – Nearly 900 local high school seniors heard the story of how an immigrant to the United States from Uruguay rose to become a vice president at Toyota, during the kickoff of HESTEC’s Student Leadership Day on Tuesday, Oct. 4, at the UTRGV Edinburg Campus.

Several researchers at the University of the Rio Grande Valley are working on an application to send to the Centers for Disease Control to build a center which will track illnesses spread through mosquitoes and limit their impact.

EDINBURG, TEXAS – OCT. 3, 2016 – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley opened HESTEC 2016 with a prestigious White House recognition of its 15 years of success in encouraging more students, particularly Hispanics and women, to take an interest in and pursue higher education and careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields.

EDINBURG – This year’s Hispanic Engineering Science and Technology week, known as HESTEC, at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley began with the presentation of a White House recognition on Monday.

EDINBURG – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley opened HESTEC 2016 with a prestigious White House recognition of its 15 years of success in encouraging more students, particularly Hispanics and women, to take an interest in and pursue higher education and careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields.

EDINBURG – This year’s Hispanic Engineering Science and Technology week, known as HESTEC, at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley began with the presentation of a White House recognition on Monday.

EDINBURG – Teachers from school districts across the Rio Grande Valley sang songs about algebra, played with matches to learn about chemical reactions and explored career options for their students among other activities, during a range of breakout sessions Monday at UTRGV’s Hispanic Engineering, Science and Technology Conference Educator Day.

The literary community of deep South Texas has flourished in recent years, and nowhere is that more evident than in the work flowing from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s faculty, both original writing and curated endeavors.

McALLEN – There were several questions left unanswered Thursday in a debate over the proposed healthcare district between Hidalgo County Pct. 2 Commissioner Eddie Cantu and pediatrician Dr. Martin Garza.

Rio Grande Valley, Texas- Sept.19,2016- The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley announced today a fall 2016 headcount enrollment of 27,551 highlighted by one of the top freshman classes in the state.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 29, 2016 - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced $8.4 million in grants that will be used by organizations in 24 states to provide training, outreach and technical assistance for socially disadvantaged, tribal and veteran farmers and ranchers.

MCALLEN – Youths in the Rio Grande Valley are sometimes faced with a variety of pressures and making tough choices. Street gangs and criminals usually try to recruit them because they are impressionable, according to experts.

EDINBURG – This year marks the 15th anniversary, or quinceañera, of HESTEC – Hispanic Engineering Science and Technology week – and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley is commemorating the occasion by expanding the reach of the conference.

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – SEPT. 26, 2016 – The Rocket Launchers at UTRGV, a student group at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, is off to a soaring start launching not only rockets, but also their careers in the aerospace industry.

"Nobody likes the wall," says Tony Martinez, mayor of Brownsville, a city in the southeastern corner of Texas across the Rio Grande from Matamoros, Mexico. He's the son of Mexican immigrants and a Democrat, but he's not exaggerating: Even Donald Trump supporters in the town hate the border fence that has been here since 2008.

Panelists at the Texas Tribune Festival met over the weekend to discuss issues in higher education affecting students across Texas. The slow growth of racial diversity and high tuition costs at Texas colleges were issues panelists wanted to see addressed when the 85th Legislature begins in the upcoming months.

Gathered around two TV monitors and with a camera and microphones pointed at them, graduate students at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s Brownsville campus participated in a course taught 67 miles away via video conference.

In November of 2015, The Monitor editorial board criticized the City of Mission for reneging on a financial commitment that it and a group of four other governmental entities made in support of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine.

EDINBURG, RGV – Salvador Contreras, director of the Center for Border Economic Studies of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, published a statistical report as part of the Border Business Briefs on K-12 education along the border.

McALLEN – The University of Texas Board of Regents approved a private-public agreement Friday morning slated to bring a research facility to the city of McAllen as part of a deal between UT-Rio Grande Valley and Doctors Hospital at Renaissance.

EDINBURG – The excitement of the first cohort, first graduating class and even the controversial change of mascots are now part of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s history. This second year, officials said, will be full of reassessments.

HARLINGEN – Why do the Ironman?. Why climb Mt. Everest?Because it’s a challenge. That’s why an increasing number of local women are taking on the Ironman triathlon. At the Tri Girl Sprint Triathlon in Harlingen last month, numerous women referred to their participation in the Ironman triathlon, a grueling event which consists of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile run.

WASHINGTON – Donald Trump went to Mexico and spoke in a hush and called Mexicans "spectacular," and it seemed, for another fleeting moment, like he might be trying to execute the immigration "softening" he was said to be considering.

EDINBURG, RGV – UT-Rio Grande Valley has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with NextDecade, LLC, the company which plans to build a $20 billion liquefied natural gas export terminal at the Port of Brownsville.

Following the aftermath of recent major flooding in Louisiana, a research program from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley aims to create a plan that will better prepare the Rio Grande Valley for natural disasters.

La Paloma Elementary fourth grade teacher Ana Richmond, along with two fellow graduate students, had the opportunity to present her research on Differentiated Instruction to the Texas Council for Exceptional Children at their annual conference in Austin.

(CNSNews.com) - The Obama administration is proposing a new rule that would allow "certain international entrepreneurs" to come to the United States temporarily to start or expand their businesses in this country.

Today marks an important step in attracting the world’s best and brightest entrepreneurs to start the next generation of great companies and create jobs here in the United States. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is publishing a proposed International Entrepreneur Rule.

EDINBURG – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros women’s soccer team won the inaugural match of the South Texas Showdown, presented by Navy Army Community Credit Union, by beating the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders 2-1 on Friday in the UTRGV Invitational at the UTRGV Soccer and Track & Field Complex.

HARLINGEN – It’s been a rough road. Ricardo Ramos, 22, cradled the certification in building construction science he’d just earned from Texas State Technical College. He and other graduates were receiving their associates degrees and certifications yesterday at the TSTC Commencement Ceremony.

EDINBURG - Is the Rio Grande Valley ready for its own college football team? That's the question under current consideration at the UT-RGV campus. The feasibility study continues while trying to overcome a big hurdle. Where would the team play? CHANNEL 5's Ruben Juarez has an update on the progress of the committee.

This month, I visited the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) to participate in a kick-off symposium for the new AACTE Holmes Cadets Program starting there. The participating high school students were a dynamic reminder of why AACTE is expanding the Holmes Program: to support historically underrepresented students pursuing careers in education.

Last Thursday, I had the opportunity to see history unfolding in the Rio Grande Valley. I traveled from Austin for a series of events related to the new UTRGV School of Medicine and the positive impact it is having on the health care ecosystem of the Valley.

EDINBURG, RGV – William McRaven, Chancellor of the University of Texas System, said cities that have both a medical school and a healthcare district, such as those in Dallas, Bexar and Harris counties, have worked very well together for the community that they support.

Engaging posters and excited students were plentiful during the competition and closing ceremony of The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s High School Research Scholars Program (HIGH Scholars) held Aug. 5 on the Edinburg Campus.

EDINBURG – University of Texas Rio Grande Valley leaders received the results of a study on gender equity in faculty salaries as the first step of bringing fairness in pay across its campuses, which for the most part still reflect salary practices of their legacy institutions – UT-Pan American and UT-Brownsville.

Black Lives Matter: we’ve heard it a lot lately in the wake of more police shootings of black men. It came up – in different ways – at both the Republican and the Democratic National Conventions. It’s also showing up in places where there are not a lot of black lives – places like the Rio Grande Valley – with a black population of just one percent.

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley will host the first RGV Nonprofit Business Summit Aug. 9, offering tools and ideas for sustainable success, networking opportunities, and session and keynote presentations by social change experts from the region and the country.

Behind every commercial and institutional building going up in the Rio Grande Valley is a general contractor. Years ago, contractors would bid on a project, win a bid, hire numerous subcontractors, oversee the work and strive to finish it all on time and on budget.

EDINBURG. Texas will allow concealed handgun license holders to carry their weapons onto public university campuses starting today, which is also the 50th anniversary of the mass shooting at the University of Texas landmark clock tower.

EDINBURG. For nearly a year now, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley has prepared to roll out the mandated and controversial campus carry law, which allows concealed handgun license holders to carry on campus starting Monday.

Isabel Gonzales always wanted her daughter Veronica Gonzales to be a lawyer or a doctor. When I was growing up, there weren't many careers that you knew about, Veronica said. You knew doctors and lawyers were successful. My parents were very smart but had a limited education. We didn't know much about what engineers did.

San Benito. A new partnership between Cameron County and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley will give the county much-needed guidance on environmental challenges and may even bring more grant money to the region for future infrastructure projects.

A new partnership between Cameron County and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley will give the county much-needed guidance on environmental challenges and may even bring more grant money to the region for future infrastructure projects.

Nathan Associates Principal Economist Alan P. Meister, Ph.D., and academic affiliates Clyde W. Barrow, Ph.D., and David R. Borges, M.P.A. announced the publication of a groundbreaking article in Gaming Law Review & Economics, which is the first systematic analysis of market saturation in the U.S. casino gaming industry.

MISSION. International leaders met Thursday to discuss the importance of the Rio Grande Valley for trade and commerce on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border and how the region can stay competitive in a global economy.

After a weekend of high emotion and fanfare, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine’s first 55 students started classes Monday, July 25, 2016. A few days in, students are settling into their new, medical path of study.

Thanks to a $2.88 million grant from United Health Foundation, the days of driving long distances to the primary care physician for a doctor's appointment may be over for 4,500 residents of Texas' Rio Grande Valley.

A new grant to The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley will help train students to become the next generation of agricultural research scientists focused on future challenges in climate change and food security.

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine welcomed its first 55 students into the medical profession with the inaugural White Coat Ceremony July 23. Families, School of Medicine faculty, state and local dignitaries and others in attendance cheered.

As 55 medical students from the first class of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s School of Medicine entered their white coat ceremony in Edinburg on Saturday morning, most of them peered into the audience gathered at the Performing Arts Center to look for friends and loved ones.

EDINBURG – Heart, respect, dignity, sensitivity and affection are the five qualities Dr. Francisco Fernandez hopes to instill in every one of the 55 students who dawned their white coats Saturday to become the first cohort of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine.

EDINBURG – Heart, respect, dignity, sensitivity and affection are the five qualities Dr. Francisco Fernandez hopes to instill in every one of the 55 students who dawned their white coats Saturday to become the first cohort of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine.

Working alongside an astrophysicist at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley this summer, Jose Ortiz, a rising senior at Robert Vela High School in Edinburg, is learning all about star clusters and what they can tell researchers about stellar evolution.

If the State Board of Education approves a proposed Mexican-American studies textbook this fall, Texas students could learn that the Aztecs waged war because of “bloodlust,” 19th-century Mexican industrial laborers often drank on the job and slavery was in swift decline just before the Civil War, scholars and activists said at a press conference Monday.

Less than one year after classes formally began at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, a “culture of fear is pervasive” on campus that is exacerbated by poor communication by the administration, concludes a recent white paper study produced by the university’s faculty senate.

The Monitor emailed several questions to UTRGV spokesman Patrick Gonzales, who responded to the questions in consultation with the administration, including UTRGV President Guy Bailey and Provost Havidan Rodriguez.

SAN BENITO, RGV – San Benito Chamber of Commerce has asked the UT-Rio Grande Valley Entrepreneurship & Commercialization Center for help following a report that said the city was one of the worst places for Texas families.

University of California, Berkeley paleontologists have identified distinctive features of primate teeth that allow them to track the evolution of our ape and monkey ancestors, shedding light on a mysterious increase in monkey species.

Three UTRGV students are gaining invaluable knowledge and experience this summer, living and working in Washington, D.C., as participants in the prestigious Archer Center’s Graduate Program in Public Policy.

EDINBURG – Protected by a white lab coat and plastic gloves, Dr. John Thomas, a researcher at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, checked the status of an orange liquid in a plastic container. In that container is the Puerto Rican strain of the Zika virus.

BROWNSVILLE, RGV – How does SpaceX and building an aerospace cluster in Brownsville align with United Brownsville’s agenda, Brownsville Economic Development Council Vice President Gilberto Salinas was asked.

EDINBURG – This summer, 1,250 students from elementary to high school built LEGO robots, magnetic levitating trains and bumper cars to learn the important roles that science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields play in creating safe transportation.

The World Health Organization defines mental health as “a state of well-being in which an individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stress of life, can work productively, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community.”

McALLEN – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley commemorated Thursday the opening of its first clinic in Hidalgo County focused on undeserved communities and educating the next generation of healthcare professionals.

McALLEN – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley commemorated Thursday the opening of its first clinic in Hidalgo County focused on underserved communities and educating the next generation of healthcare professionals.

Under the direction of Dr. Constantine Tarawneh – mechanical engineering professor and Bentsen Fellow at UTRGV and recently named associate dean for Research – the University Transportation Center for Railway Safety (UTCRS) focuses on rail safety research, education, technology transfer and implementation, and workforce development.

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s College of Health Affairs will hold ribbon-cutting ceremonies July 7 and 8 for the grand opening of two primary care clinics it will operate in McAllen and Harlingen.

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – JULY 5, 2016 – Professors and graduate students from seven Latin American countries are visiting South Texas for the first time to attend a multi-disciplinary research symposium hosted by The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley through July 9.

Experience and a working relationship with football-hungry Wichita State pushed College Sports Solutions, LLC, to the front of the line when UTRGV went searching for a consulting firm to conduct its football feasibility study.

EDINBURG – After two years of leading the creation of what is slated by many as one of the greatest steps forward for the region – the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine – founding Dean Francisco Fernandez will be stepping down from his position effective.

EDINBURG –After two years of leading the creation of what is slated by many as one of the greatest steps forward for the region – the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine – Dr. Francisco Fernandez announced he will be stepping down from as dean of the school effective Friday.

EDINBURG – The founding dean of the UT-Rio Grande Valley school of medicine, Dr. Francisco Fernandez, announced Wednesday he will step down after two years spent building the region’s first medical school.

EDINBURG – After two years of leading the creation of what is slated by many as one of the greatest steps forward for the region – the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine – founding Dean Francisco Fernandez will be stepping down from his position, several sources said Wednesday.

EDINBURG – After two years of leading the creation of what is slated by many as one of the greatest steps forward for the region – the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine – Dr. Francisco Fernandez announced he will be stepping down from as dean of the school effective Friday.

MGM Resorts International has suffered a setback in a bid to block development of a casino in Connecticut that would be a direct competitor to the $950 million casino the Las Vegas-based company is building in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Texans love football. And they love to get behind their teams. It really builds a sense of community, especially in South Texas, where entire areas can be noted by vivid displays of bright purple (McAllen and Weslaco High Schools), aqua blue (Memorial High) and bright red (Sharyland High).

Dr. Steve Lieberman, senior Dean for Administration in the School of Medicine, has been named interim dean of the new medical school at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley while the school searches for a permanent dean. Lieberman takes over for Dr. Francisco Fernandez, who announced last week that he was stepping down.

Marie T. Mora, professor of economics and associate vice provost for Faculty Diversity at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, was among a small group of leading economists who met June 17 with Janet Yellen, chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, to discuss the need for more diversity within the Fed – the central banking system in the United States.

As they filed into the foyer for orientation on Monday in the new University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine building at the Edinburg campus, the 55 students in the university’s first medical school cohort passed a sign that read: “Welcome Class of 2020. One Community. One Mission. One Solution.”

EDINBURG – University of Texas Rio Grande Valley officials met Monday morning at the recently completed Medical Education Building to commemorate another first in the books: the arrival of 55 fresh faces who will represent the School of Medicine’s inaugural class.

South Texas College history instructor Trinidad Gonzales and University of Texas Rio Grande Valley English instructor Christopher Carmona were among the Valley’s delegation at the Summit on Implementing Mexican-American Studies in Texas Schools on Saturday in San Antonio.

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – JUNE 21, 2016 – Dr. Marie T. Mora, professor of economics and associate vice provost for Faculty Diversity at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, was among a small group of leading economists who met June 17 with Dr. Janet Yellen, chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, to discuss the need for more diversity within the Fed – the central banking system in the United States.

Latin American countries most affected by the Zika virus are employing the expertise of researchers at The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston to fight the deadly epidemic, as the mosquito-borne disease continues to spread around the world.

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – Carlie Patrick and Leroy Berrones Soto, students at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, returned from Washington, D.C., feeling they had contributed to improving and strengthening the child welfare system in the United States.

Physicists with the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley helped make history with the first ever detection of gravitational waves, which occurred last September and was announced in February at a press conference in Washington D.C.

Texas has a great number of Texas brands: Southwest Airlines. Texas Instruments. Lone Star Beer. Dell Computer. Imperial Sugar. The King Ranch. Now, The King Ranch is a brand that came, quite literally, from a brand. King Ranch even has its own brand of Ford Pickup.

Mosquitoes bearing Zika–a virus that can cause birth defects when contracted by pregnant women–are expected to reach the United States as soon as this summer, with Florida and Texas likely to be among the hardest-hit states.

The UTRGV Ballet Folklórico and Mariachi Juvenil Aztlán, the university's newest mariachi troupe, are performing today at the 2016 National College Dance Festival hosted by John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Havidán Rodríguez, who served on the Edinburg EDC Board of Directors from 2013 to 2015, is founding Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs at UTRGV. Mayor Richard García said Rodríguez’ efforts on behalf of Edinburg and UTRGV have been impressive.

TRIBECA – A 12-foot-tall photo of a red metal fence with muddy footprints hangs on the wall of a TriBeCa studio. To the artists behind the image, the picture is a close-up view of an expansive problem: the nearly 600 miles of piecemeal border wall that separates the U.S. from Mexico.

Mosquitoes bearing Zika–a virus that can cause birth defects when contracted by pregnant women–are expected to reach the United States as soon as this summer, with Florida and Texas likely to be among the hardest-hit states.

The global refugee crisis and proposed plans for a new, improved and costly wall along the U.S. Mexico border have been hotly debated topics this presidential campaign cycle. Along with Donald Trump, Pope Francis and Bono, artists are weighing in on these contentious issues with their creative interpretations and viewpoints.

Border walls have become the centerpiece of global policies aimed at increased militarization to deter undocumented immigration and smuggling for the sake of national security in the war on terror. Despite hopes that the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 portended the dawn of a new era, a world without walls, thirty-three nation-states have constructed walls to physically and symbolically demarcate borders.

BROWNSVILLE – Part of Abigail Morales’ high school memories is the uncertainty she and her family had about whether or not she would be able to attend college in the United States. Being the first generation to attend school in the country brought along many unanswered questions, but local AmeriCorps members were able to help.

BROWNSVILLE – Part of Abigail Morales’ high school memories is the uncertainty she and her family had about whether or not she would be able to attend college in the United States. Being the first generation to attend school in the country brought along many unanswered questions, but local AmeriCorps members helped.

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley is accepting applications for its new Master of Arts in Disaster Studies program, a 36-hour program with both thesis and non-thesis options that provides students with formal training in a transdisciplinary and multicultural approach to the study and management of disasters.

EDINBURG, TEXAS – MAY 27, 2016 – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Chemistry Department is now part of the Integrating Food Science/Engineering and Education Network, known as IFSEEN, a collaborative program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

EDINBURG, TEXAS – MAY 27, 2016 – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Chemistry Department is now part of the Integrating Food Science/Engineering and Education Network, known as IFSEEN, a collaborative program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

EDINBURG – Jacky Hay has been drag racing since she was 7 years old. At 18, she started racing with adult dragsters. Hay races twice a month, busing the six-hour round-trip to her hometown of Monterrey to compete during the weekends.

EDINBURG – Mack Brown’s throw skidded across the plate as he delivered the ceremonial first pitch with NCAA executive Oliver Luck before the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s baseball game against Grand Canyon on Thursday night at UTRGV Baseball Stadium.

There often is a tendency for people to declare that certain events in our community are historic. There also is a tendency for people to fail to realize that other events in our community are transformational.

Officials from the state, county and city gathered Tuesday morning to take part in a mosquito-borne virus press conference hosted by State Rep. Eddie Lucio III,D-Brownsville, and the City of Brownsville.

EDINBURG – As it approaches its one-year anniversary, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley received what officials say is the most significant contribution yet: $15 million from Bert Ogden CEO Robert Vackar, officials announced Wednesday.

There is often a tendency for people to declare that certain events in our community are historic. There is also a tendency for people to fail to realize that other events in our community are transformational.

EDINBURG – As it approaches its one-year anniversary, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley received what officials say is the most significant contribution yet: $15 million from Bert Ogden CEO Robert Vackar, officials announced Wednesday.

EDINBURG – As it approaches its one-year anniversary, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley received what officials say is the most significant contribution yet: $15 million from Bert Ogden CEO Robert Vackar, officials announced Wednesday.

Physicists at the Brownsville campus of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley will share in a $3 million Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics awarded for the first detection of gravitational waves.

A few top physicists from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley made the first detection of gravitational waves. The team will receive a Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics of $3 million.

Physicists at the Brownsville campus of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley will share in a $3 million Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics awarded for the first detection of gravitational waves.

Students of the Brownsville Independent School District will be able to receive free college classes starting this summer due to a new partnership between the school district and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

Although drop cloths were still on the floor in some places protecting the newly laid tile as construction workers were tidying up here and there, and the 55 medical students won’t arrive until the end of next month, a media tour on Wednesday of the UTRGV School of Medicine’s new Medical Education Building at the Edinburg campus still evoked a sense of reverence and an exciting anticipation of great things to come.

My mom lived to be 101 and five months. She said once you reached 99, you started counting your age like a newborn – in months: 99 and six months, 99 and nine months. She used to advise that if you wanted to live to be a hundred, you should live to be 99 and then be very, very careful.

EDINBURG – Middle school teacher Janet Johnson remembers one of her favorite college courses was computer coding. Figuring out the symbols was very interesting to her, she said, but she never thought she would teach a room full of sixth and seventh graders how to code.

The Rio Grande Valley saw more Civil War battles than any other area in Texas, says Chris Miller, a history professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. With most southern ports blockaded by the Union navy, the Mexican port of Bagdad on the Rio Grande played a vital role in supplying the Confederacy.

When Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream attended a meeting of top American CEOs, they were shocked – shocked! – to find the CEOs had high ethical standards, didn’t exploit their workers, their communities or the environment, and supported worthy nonprofits.

The Rio Grande Valley Diabetes Association (RGVDA) is proud to announce our partnership with University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s dietician program. This partnership will allow the students to share the knowledge they have acquired through this great program and help those who are being affected by diabetes in the community to accomplish a healthier way of life.

Twenty-five student teams from across the country will brave the depths of the world's largest swimming pool April-June to test their research in simulated microgravity as part of NASA's Micro-g Neutral Buoyancy Experiment Design Teams (Micro-g NExT) activity.

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Ballet Company will present its first annual concert, “A Night of Ballet & Spanish Dance,” 7:30 p.m. May 6-7 at the UTRGV Performing Arts Complex (PAC) on the Edinburg Campus.

Bravo Opera Company at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley will present “Street Scene,” an opera by Kurt Weill and Langston Hughes, on Saturday, April 23, and Sunday, April 24, at the TSC Arts Center in Brownsville.

The issue the Supreme Court heard on Monday isn’t black and white. There are four Democratic judges and four Republican judges serving on the court. A political science professor told CHANNEL 5 NEWS this makes the immigration decision complex.

There are two Tier 1 UTCs that focus solely on rail: The University of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (National University Rail Center) and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (University Transportation Center for Railway Safety).

Honor. Integrity of work. Those two values were what Richard Flores, dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at Austin, said he learned under the tutelage of Brownsville author Américo Paredes.

For nearly a decade, UTRGV Professor Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera has done what very few have dared, documenting the effects of organized crime, immigration and human trafficking along Mexico’s eastern migration routes.

(Edinburg, Texas) (April 11, 2016) The seventh annual National Robotics Week kicked off April 2 and Boys & Girls Clubs of Edinburg RGV was a part of the – more than 250 celebrations – taking place across all 50 states.

BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS –APRIL 11, 2016 – The University of Texas Rio Grande will cohost a centennial celebration of author Américo Paredes, a Brownsville native best known for his expertise as a Mexican-American folklorist, teacher, writer, poet and musician.

McALLEN – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley is working to finalize a private-public partnership that will allow it to get a new research facility in the City of McAllen by the spring 2017 semester and possibly a mini-medical campus in the future.

McALLEN – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley is working to finalize a private-public partnership that will allow it to get a new research facility in the City of McAllen by the spring 2017 semester and possibly a mini-medical campus in the future.

EDINBURG – The irony of having hungry residents living in rich agricultural areas was one of the main issues discussed at the second annual hunger forum at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley on Thursday.

People love parrots. It’s difficult to know how many parrots, or indeed, birds, are kept as pets in the United States, but that doesn’t stop the professionals from sharing their guesstimates. For example, in 2012, the American Veterinary Medical Association estimated that roughly 8.3 million birds are kept as pets in the United States, whereas a 2013 survey by the American Pet Products Association estimates there are roughly 20.6 million pet birds of all sorts.

EDINBURG – The irony of having hungry residents living in rich agricultural areas was one of the main issues discussed at the second annual hunger forum at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley on Thursday.

EDINBURG – The irony of having hungry residents living in rich agricultural areas was one of the main issues discussed at the second annual hunger forum at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley on Thursday.

It’s hard to find someone in the Rio Grande Valley who doesn’t know someone, or isn’t themselves, affected by diabetes. One in three people in the RGV have this mean illness that can render victims crippled, blind, dependent upon medications and, once diagnosed, it alters their lifestyle forever.

After her time spent with Cameron Park residents, Kathy Bussert-Webb, bilingual and literacy studies professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, decided she wanted to make a difference and help them show the positive faces of their community.

U.S. researchers are launching studies on Mexico's red-crowned parrot - a species that has been adapting so well to living in cities in California and Texas after escaping from the pet trade that the population may now rival that in its native country.

EDINBURG – The Rio Grande Valley is a whole lot more than border security, according to United States Representative Filemon Vela, D-Brownsville. To prove it, he took two of his colleagues from New York on a tour of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine Tuesday morning.

The McAllen Family Medicine Residency Program, the longest running graduate medical education program in the Rio Grande Valley, has received a $13,000 donation from the McAllen Medical Center Foundation to assist residents with scholarly activities that promote healthcare in South Texas.

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley held a pep rally for its chess team Monday morning as the players prepared to travel to New York City to compete in the President’s Cup, also known as the Final Four of College Chess tournament national competition.

As part of a national initiative to help increase graduation rates for black and Latino/a college students across the United States, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley will collaborate with higher education leaders across the country to start dialogue on how to improve outcomes for underrepresented minorities.

To paraphrase Robert Duvall in Apocalypse Now, “I love the sound of a diesel engine in the morning.” Could be a pickup, or a tractor, or an 18 wheeler. But I love the sound, because it sounds like adventure. It is the sound that says we’re off on a road trip, or going fishing, hunting, or simply taking livestock to auction, to make more money for more adventure.

HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) - Amidst acres of lettuce fields on a thriving 25-acre organic community farm in the sleepy Havana suburb of Alamar, Isis Maria Salcines Milla tells me the surprising things she would love to get her hands on if the United States trade embargo were to be repealed: "Amazon Prime," "Home Depot."

EDINBURG – For the first time, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s Ballet Folklórico is hitting the competition stage armed with not only months of preparation, but with the classic sounds of the university’s own Mariachi Juvenil Aztlán.

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley has gained another 42 medical school graduates from around the country who now will begin post-graduate training as UTRGV resident physicians in Valley hospitals.

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley has gained another 42 medical school graduates from around the country who now will begin post-graduate training as UTRGV resident physicians in Valley hospitals.

Sometimes it pays for Washington officials to hear directly from the kinds of students they want to help. About a dozen students and recent graduates from minority-serving colleges visited the Education Department in Washington late last week to tell about their experiences and what they think helps and doesn’t help in the quest to get a college diploma. Among them were African Americans, native Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos and first-generation immigrants.

“The most important effect of the whole visit in my view is the ‘I can hardly believe my eyes’ factor that it is happening,” said Paul Webster Hare, who teaches international relations at Boston University.

Several local female writers will gather today at the Narciso Martinez Cultural Arts Center in San Benito to share their experiences at the center’s sixth annual writer’s forum titled Women’s Voices Celebration in honor of International Women’s month.

AUSTIN - On a day when infighting over the Republican presidential nomination escalated to new highs, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick threatened to lead a floor fight at the upcoming GOP national convention if party bosses try to override the voters' choice of either Donald Trump or Ted Cruz.

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley will soon be expanding its engineering and computer science programs at the Brownsville Campus. Beginning with the Fall 2016 semester, bachelor of science degrees in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering or Computer Science will be available to students at the Brownsville Campus.

Music students at the new University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) are now studying in facilities equipped with a state-of-the-art LC4 Clavinova Lab and several new Yamaha grand and upright pianos. Starting in the Fall 2015 semester, the wireless, technologically advanced music lab and finely handcrafted acoustic pianos have expanded music education offerings for music majors and liberal arts students alike.

President Obama’s upcoming trip to Havana expresses the will of the White House to consolidate the new Cuba policy as part of his administration’s foreign policy legacy. Obama has less than a year left in the White House, and the opening to Cuba needs some momentum to change the course away from 50 years of isolation and hostility.

The final years of high school are full of college applications, anticipation and excitement for most students. But for those without a legal status in the United States, uncertainty might cloud the road toward higher education.

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley concluded its celebration of International Women’s Day on Thursday when the Office of Global Engagement honored Andrea Tellez-Silva as the 2016 Outstanding International Female Student on the Brownsville Campus.

WESLACO – City leaders have announced a partnership with the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley to open a mixed-used incubator designed to promote education, entrepreneurship and economic development in the area.

EDINBURG – Science behind neurological responses of victims of sexual assault is prompting a special kind of training and new protocols to be followed by all University of Texas System police officers.

An ambassador ocelot named Sihil from the Cincinnati Zoo visited the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s Brownsville campus on Friday in an effort to raise conservation awareness for the native South Texas species, which is currently endangered in the United States.

To help enhance awareness of the ocelot and its role in the South Texas ecological environment, UTRGV will host a presentation on these endangered cats and what we can do to help protect them in the wild in the Rio Grande Valley, where the last of the U.S. ocelot population is found.

EDINBURG – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley has received a grant worth $250,000 from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) Work Study Mentorship Program, to fund collegiate student mentors on the Edinburg Campus.

EDINBURG – Dancing, clapping and tapping their knees to the beat of the drums was part of how a group of third-graders at Betts Elementary School learned about slavery Monday afternoon during a book reading by author Lorenzo Pace.

EDINBURG – UTRGV University Productions will present the drama-biography of William Gibson’s The Miracle Worker, the true story of Helen Keller, blind, deaf, and mute since infancy, whose world is forever changed by a teacher named Annie Sullivan.

EDINBURG – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley picked up more than a dozen honors for creative excellence at the American Advertising Federation (AAF)-Rio Grande Valley ADDY Awards competition on Feb. 18.

EDINBURG – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley is kicking off its annual Festival of International Books & Arts (FESTIBA), an educational and entertaining event that promotes literacy and appreciation of reading for all ages.

EDINBURG – FEB. 23, 2016 – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley will host a recital on Wednesday, Feb. 24, honoring the late Dr. Carl Seale, a composer, conductor and educator at UT Pan American for 30 years in the Department of Music and Dance.

EDINBURG – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley has been awarded $4.2 million from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to expand its Graduate Medical Education programs at the School of Medicine.

EDINBURG, TEXAS – FEB. 23, 2016 – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley has been awarded $4.2 million from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to expand its Graduate Medical Education programs at the School of Medicine.

EDINBURG, TEXAS – FEB. 23, 2016 – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley will host a recital on Wednesday, Feb. 24, honoring the late Dr. Carl Seale, a composer, conductor and educator at UT Pan American for 30 years in the Department of Music and Dance.

When NASA conducts manned missions to an asteroid, astronauts could be collecting space-rock samples with a device designed at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley – at least that’s the hope of Project Kairos, a three-person team of students competing to solve an actual space challenge.

Kudos to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Office of Sustainability, which hosted the 4th Annual Texas Regional Alliance for Campus Sustainability (TRACS) Summit on Feb. 1 to 3 at the South Padre Island Convention Center.

EDINBURG – More than 1,000 high school students and their parents on Saturday explored the many opportunities available at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, during Discover UTRGV, a daylong recruitment event that provided a taste of what college life would be like at the university.

BROWNSVILLE – Dr. Jude Benavides, associate professor of Multidisciplinary Sciences at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, served as Principal for the Day at Morningside Elementary School on Friday, at the invitation of the school’s regular principal, Jose H. Martinez.

EDINBURG – Accompanied by the classic sound of mariachis, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley announced a $1 million gift from PlainsCapital Corporation on Thursday. The money will go toward scholarships.

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley hosts information sessions at its Brownsville and Edinburg campuses to assist those who are considering furthering their education March 3 and March 10, respectively.

A century after Albert Einstein predicted it, a euphoric international group of scientists announced Thursday that they have observed “gravitational waves” – ripples in the fabric of space-time – coming from a cataclysmic collision of two black holes 1.3 billion years ago.

For those of us who aren’t scientists, the importance of Thursday’s announcement by our nation’s leading scientists might have to suffice; terms such as “mind-boggling” gravitational waves had been discovered in space that may lead us to “hear the universe” in new ways never before imagined.

BROWNSVILLE – With a little help from UTRGV, scientists have detected gravitational waves, ripples through the fabric of spacetime, experimentally verifying Albert Einstein’s last prediction of general relativity made a century ago.

Mark W. Coles was floored when he got the news in mid-September that the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) in Livingston, Louisiana, had detected gravitational waves just a few days earlier.

With a little help from UTRGV, scientists have detected gravitational waves, ripples through the fabric of spacetime, experimentally verifying Albert Einstein’s last prediction of general relativity made a century ago.

With a little help from UTRGV, scientists have detected gravitational waves, ripples through the fabric of spacetime, experimentally verifying Albert Einstein’s last prediction of general relativity made a century ago.

HAVANA – The heads of the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches will hold a historic meeting Friday in the threadbare international airport of an officially secular, communist-run tropical island.

In an article titled “The Education Antidote to Radicalisation,” published on December 30, 2015 in The Daily Star, former British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, proposes education as a remedy for the radicalisation of young Muslims.

The Brownsville Historical Association continued its 2016 Winter Walking Tour series Friday morning in downtown Brownsville, beginning at the Brownsville Heritage Museum next to the Stillman House at 1325 E. Washington Street.

The evolving world of journalism has created wonderful opportunities for media companies to serve the community, by forcing them to understand that information is just as vital as the traditional role of providing news.

EDINBURG – University of Texas Rio Grande Valley officials announced the largest donation to the institution since it was created, a gift of $2 million by the Vackar family, owners of the local Bert Ogden car dealerships.

Very exciting news for UTRGV Edinburg! Robert and Janet Vackar of Bert Ogden auto have donated two million dollars to the university. It is the largest gift in the school's history. They say their wish is to give back to the valley and contribute to the growth of the university.

EDINBURG– University of Texas Rio Grande Valley officials announced the largest donation to the institution Tuesday morning, a gift of $2 million by the the Vackar family, owners of the local Bert Ogden car dealerships.

EDINBURG– University of Texas Rio Grande Valley officials announced the largest donation to the institution Tuesday morning, a gift of $2 million by the the Vackar family, owners of the local Bert Ogden car dealerships.

BROWNSVILLE, RGV – A group funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation seeks to double the number of young adults in Brownsville who earn postsecondary credentials – certificate, associate or bachelor’s – with labor market value by 2025.

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – JAN 4, 2016 – With the goal of becoming a full professor at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Dr. Amy Weimer is taking full advantage of a new faculty support and mentoring program that began this fall at the university.

Student vocalists from The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley made their voices successfully heard at the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Texoma Regional Conference, held recently at the Oklahoma City University Bass School of Music.

We congratulate the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Medical School for recently receiving $1 million from Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas to be used by the school of medicine’s first clinic in the region to help high-risk youth.

We congratulate the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Medical School for recently receiving $1 million from Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas to be used by the school of medicine’s first clinic in the region to help high-risk youth.

EDINBURG – Vilma Flores stared through a magnifying glass Friday afternoon, polishing minute flaws on a small piece of medal that will soon make up the first Chain of Office and Presidential Medallion to be worn by Guy Bailey – inaugural president of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley – during the first commencement ceremonies on Saturday.

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – DEC. 14, 2015 – Veronica Gonzales, UTRGV vice president for Governmental and Community Relations, and Velinda Reyes, assistant vice president for Community Programs and Operations, are in Washington, D.C., to participate in a STEM-centered roundtable discussion that is part of President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper +STEM Initiative.

MERCEDES – If Dr. Francisco Fernandez appeared animated during Thursday’s groundbreaking ceremony for Knapp Medical Center’s new Family Practice Residency Clinic, consider that the project’s potential impact in the area is such that it elicited excitement he could only describe by evoking the Pointer Sisters.

Although competency-based education is not a new concept, the University of Texas System (UTS) is taking it to a new level with its recently launched "TEx," a mobile-first application designed by UTS's Institute for Transformational Learning (ITL) to boost student engagement and retention.

EDINBURG – In a first for the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and the entire UT System, a faculty member was recognized as Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.

As part of the Gender and Communication coursework, students at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley hosted an expo Wednesday at the Brownsville campus to spread awareness about sexual assault and harassment.

EDINBURG–For the second consecutive time, the Physician Assistant program at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley gained worldwide recognition by the technology giant Apple for its use of iPads in the classroom.

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine’s commitment to the Indian Hills community was underscored this week with a health clinic at La Iglesia de los Hechos, where medical residents and other healthcare professionals addressed the wellness needs of 57 residents.

EDINBURG – A policy banning smoking at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Edinburg campus might be implemented in the coming year. It prohibits the use of any kind of tobacco-related devices and products throughout its campuses.

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, in partnership with the Texas A&M School of Public Health, graduated its first class of health promoters, also known as promotores, in the Indian Hills community.

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine’s commitment to the Indian Hills community was underscored this week with a health clinic at La Iglesia de los Hechos, where medical residents and other healthcare professionals addressed the wellness needs of 57 residents.

To address food insecurities among some students, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Student Food Pantry was established in Edinburg last fall, and opened on the Brownsville Campus on Nov. 24, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony to help spread the word.

Brownsville ’ Universities don’t provide the same free or reduced meals like many primary schools. The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley officials said they’re worried about starving students and are working to change that.

Dr. Stephanie Alvarez, an associate professor of Mexican American Studies at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, has been named a U.S. Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).

If it weren’t for the insistence of Ramiro Peña’s wife that he go back to school, he would not have earned a bachelor’s degree, and he probably would not be working toward his Master of Fine Arts at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

The Rio Grande Science and Arts Festival’s Latina Day event Thursday at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s Brownsville campus gave female students from around the Valley an opportunity to meet role models who have been successful in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields.

Efren Ramirez, the actor who played “Pedro” from Napoleon Dynamite, will be present at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Brownsville campus today and Saturday to speak to students as part of the Rio Grande Science and Arts Festival.

Various shootings on U.S. college campuses have changed the higher education atmosphere in our country and have caused many states to change campus weapons laws, including Texas, which has been the subject of much debate here.

McALLEN– When Max Cornejo graduated from the University of Texas at Brownsville in 2014, his mindset changed from going back to his hometown in Peru to starting a professional life in the United States – a goal he achieved in part thanks to an extension to his student visa status.

McALLEN – When Max Cornejo graduated from the University of Texas at Brownsville in 2014, his mindset changed from going back to his hometown in Peru to starting a professional life in the United States – a goal he achieved, in part, thanks to an extension of his student visa status.

EDINBURG– The line only grew longer by the minute as Temple Grandin met, advised and prescribed books to those interested in learning about autism or livestock on Monday at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND – Scientists from Texas A&M AgriLife, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and Texas A&M Corpus Christi have collaborated on unmanned aerial vehicle flyovers of the red tide algae bloom that appears to be fading off the South Texas coast, according to experts.

EDINBURG – Thousands of students throughout the Rio Grande Valley take advantage of dual or concurrent enrollment courses for college credit before graduating high school. And starting this year, they will be able to do so free of charge.

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND – Scientists from Texas A&M AgriLife, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and Texas A&M Corpus Christi have collaborated on unmanned aerial vehicle flyovers of the red tide algae bloom off the South Texas coast, according to experts.

Congressman Rubén Hinojosa announced the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture has awarded two separate grants to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in the amount of $500,000 and $250,000.

EDINBURG – University of Texas Rio Grande Valley officials confirmed its School of Medicine received preliminary accreditation by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education in an unusual verbal notification, which is pending a letter of approval, officials said.

EDINBURG – University of Texas Rio Grande Valley officials confirmed Thursday that its School of Medicine received preliminary accreditation by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education in an unusual verbal notification, which is pending a letter of approval, officials said.

WESLACO – Karen Bell, Consul General for the United Kingdom in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana, toured the Rio Grande Valley this week to learn more about the area’s economic growth and academic impact.

Underground utility work for a new three-story academic building at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s Brownsville campus should begin in December, with an official groundbreaking likely to follow in January.

EDINBURG – Julia Peralta, a Hidalgo native, has attended HESTEC Community Day for the past three years. Participation in the event was important to her because of her involvement with the TexPREP program for pre-engineering students in middle school and high school.

EDINBURG – The annual robotics match at HESTEC – Hispanic, Engineering, Science and Technology week – took a creative turn this year as students were expected to put the battle aside and worry about task completion instead.

Hundreds of faithful from across the Rio Grande Valley joined in prayer Wednesday night and listened to Christian, Muslim and Jewish religious leaders talk about their common values and some of the challenges they face in a modern society.

"Change the World through STEM" is the theme of the 2015 Hispanic Engineering, Science and Technology Week held on the campus of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley , formally University of Texas-Pan American , October 5-11.

EDINBURG – Approximately 1,000 students from 17 GEAR UP high schools from across the Rio Grande Valley filled the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Fieldhouse on Tuesday morning to begin Student Leadership Day.

EDINBURG – Approximately 1,000 students from 17 GEAR UP high schools from across the Rio Grande Valley filled the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Fieldhouse on Tuesday morning to begin Student Leadership Day.

EDINBURG, TEXAS – OCT. 5, 2015 – A former director of the U.S. Census Bureau got HESTEC’s Educator Day off to a solid start Monday morning by affirming what leaders in the Rio Grande Valley have been saying for a long time now: The Hispanic population in this country is driving the population growth of Texas and the nation, and we have to pay close attention to their education.

EDINBURG – Less investment on textbooks and more on devices, preparing youths for careers in STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Math – plus greater focus on blended learning should be at the forefront of education, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said yesterday.

EDINBURG – Less investment on textbooks and more on devices, the important of preparing youth for careers in STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Math – plus greater focus on blended learning should be at the forefront of education, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said Tuesday during a panel discussion at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

Edinburg, Texas - "Change the World through STEM" is the theme of the 2015 Hispanic Engineering, Science and Technology (HESTEC) Week held on the campus of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), formally University of Texas-Pan American (UTPA), October 5-11.

EDINBURG – Less investment in textbooks and more on devices, the important of preparing youth for careers in STEM – science, technology, engineering and math – plus greater focus on blended learning should be at the forefront of education, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said Tuesday during a panel discussion at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

EDINBURG - The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley kicked off its Hispanic Engineering, Science and Technology (HESTEC) Week with a formal Congressional Dinner on Sunday, Oct. 4, at the Edinburg Conference Center at Renaissance.

Award-winning journalist and former CNN reporter Soledad O’Brien’s tour, “I Am Latino In America,” will make a stop at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley tonight to kick off the 2015 Hispanic Engineering, Science and Technology (HESTEC) week.

The Monitor: Valley school districts prepare for a week full of STEM challenges

EDINBURG – Exposure to local higher education opportunities and to careers in the growing STEM – science, technology, engineering and math – field, continue to attract school districts throughout the Rio Grande Valley to the annual HESTEC week.

The Monitor: UTRGV opens first theater season

University Theatre Productions of UTRGV opens its first play of the first theater season with "Juno and the Paycock," an internationally famous masterpiece by Irish playwright Sean O’Casey from Oct. 7 to 11. This play, which is historic in its own right, also is a historic event for theatre on the Edinburg campus.

The Cameron County offices of Edwards Abstract and Title Co. will host the 3rd Annual State of Real Estate Forum on Thursday, Nov. 5 at the Rancho Viejo Country Club Conference Center. Registration starts at 8:30 a.m. and the program begins at 9 to 11 a.m. The State of Real Estate Forum is coordinated in both Cameron and Hidalgo Counties as a service of Edwards Abstract and Title Co.

Valley Morning Star: Valley schools prepare for STEM challenges

EDINBURG – Exposure to local higher education opportunities and to careers in the growing STEM – science, technology, engineering and math – field, continue to attract school districts throughout the Rio Grande Valley to the annual HESTEC week.

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND – Evidence of red tide along South Padre Island and the Lower Laguna Madre continues to mount, but airborne effects are not as bad as previously feared, according to a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service marine expert.

EDINBURG – Araceli Rios, one of the new students accepted into the fall 2015 cohort of the bachelor of science in nursing program at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, said she was born to be a nurse.

Evidence of red tide along South Padre Island and the Lower Laguna Madre continues to mount, but airborne effects are not as bad as previously feared, according to a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service marine expert.

The new University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) made headlines recently when it opened its doors because it is the state’s newest four-year university and medical school. Now, it is making headlines again – this time as it becomes the first university in the nation to offer an all-digital degree program.

More than 29,000 Vaqueros rode onto The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s campuses in Brownsville and Edinburg on Aug. 31 celebrating a historic moment – a new university – for the Lone Star State.

Soledad O'Brien's "I AM LATINO IN AMERICA" tour will stop at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley on Oct. 5 during the university’s week celebrating Hispanic engineering, science and technology, or HESTEC.

Before the start of the fall semester at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s Mathematics and Science Academy, 30 second-year MSA students boarded a bus early on the morning of Monday, Aug. 17, and set off on a field trip.

The White House says The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley is doing a great job of helping Latinos get a quality education, and on Sept. 15 named it a “Bright Spot” in the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics.

Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Monthly Labor Review naturally gives rise for reflection upon how the demographic characteristics of the American workforce have dramatically changed.

The difficulties of the transition to become the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley was the major topic discussed at the UTRGV Student Government Association president’s State of the Student Body Address on Tuesday afternoon at the Brownsville campus.

McALLEN, RGV – Following the visit of VA Secretary Robert McDonald to the Rio Grande Valley on Monday, local veterans and members of Congress say they are closer to securing a VA hospital for the region than ever before.

The University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley and Hidalgo County Head Start Program will receive more than $22.9 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Rep. Ruben Hinojosa announced in news release sent Friday.

Monday marked the first day of classes for students at the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley. But on the same day two years ago, UTRGV President Guy Bailey was in a hospital room in Birmingham, Alabama, watching his wife live the last 36 hours of her life.

With an eye toward improving material science through increased diverse perspectives, the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded six Partnerships for Research and Education in Materials (PREM) awards this year, in its fifth such competition since 2004.

EDINBURG – Monica Cosby begun her day right before sunrise getting ready to catch the 7:30 a.m. Vaquero Shuttle to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s Edinburg campus. This is the first time she travels about an hour and a half to attend classes, she said, and today wasn’t too bad.

EDINBURG – Monica Cosby began her day right before sunrise, getting ready to catch the 7:30 a.m. Vaquero Shuttle to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s Edinburg campus. This was the first time she traveled about an hour-and-a-half to attend classes, she said, and Tuesday wasn’t too bad.

BROWNSVILLE – Chancellor William McRaven of the University of Texas System was present at a proclamation ceremony yesterday to commemorate the launch of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, a moment he said would “change Texas forever.”

Dr. William R. Fannin, president ad interim of The University of Texas at Brownsville, has been leading UTB during its final year and helped facilitate the legacy institution’s transition to The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

HARLINGEN, Texas - Before the sun came up Sunday, about 50 cyclists gathered near the iconic Bronc statue on the Edinburg Campus. Simultaneously, 88 riders assembled at the Main lawn of the Brownsville Campus.

On Aug. 27, Monitor Editor Carlos Sanchez sat down for an hour-long interview with Guy Bailey, founding president of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley during a Newsmaker Breakfast Series at the McAllen Chamber of Commerce.

Through attending city and county meetings to signing memorandums, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley administrators want to make President Guy Bailey’s message clear: the university is for the entire Rio GrandeValley.

Through attending city and county meetings to signing memorandums, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley administrators want to make President Guy Bailey’s message clear: the university is for the entire Rio Grande Valley.

Claudia Borrego, an English teacher at Brownsville’s Pace High School, and Edith Garcia, a math teacher at Brownsville’s Porter High School, saw an opportunity they couldn’t pass up – to join a graduate cohort whereby The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and Brownsville Independent School District each would cover a third of their graduate school tuition and fees.

The University of Texas System Board of Regents recently approved $478 million in appropriations for the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, which is expected to help the university better serve the estimated 28,000 students in accomplishing their goals.

Arguably, nowhere else in this giant state is there a regional cohesion as strong as the one that exists in South Texas. Residents here identify themselves as being from the Rio Grande Valley as easily as they identify as being from McAllen or Harlingen or Brownsville – and all points between.

EDINBURG – Surrounded by Bronc banners using the classic colors of the University of Texas-Pan American, the first generation of University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros filled the Edinburg campus Fieldhouse Saturday in preparation for the first day of classes.

University of Texas Rio Grande Valley students enrolled in the new biomedical sciences program will have the opportunity to do something most college students can only dream of, which is to go through college without needing any traditional textbooks.

A spirited drumline and cheerleaders clad in sparkly new uniforms greeted students, faculty and staff of The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, as they arrived to hear an address on the Edinburg Campus by the university’s founding president, Guy Bailey.

University of Texas at Brownsville President Dr. William Fannin handed over the keys to the campus to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley president Dr. Guy Bailey as a symbolic gesture Tuesday to mark the transition of the campus becoming UTRGV.

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and South Texas College on Monday signed the first Memorandum of Understanding between the two institutions, signifying their mutual commitment to student success in South Texas and marking a historic partnership developed to yield positive results.

The University of Texas System aims to use social, mobile and cloud technology – with cognitive analytical tools – to develop health care delivery solutions customized for individual patients in the Rio Grande Valley.

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley is slated to open in August with a competency based educational that prepares motivated students to begin accelerating their careers as early as middle school.

Every legislative session, hundreds of individuals, non-profit groups, special-interest lobbyists, city and county officials and public and private education representatives, among others, visit legislators and their staff at the Texas Capitol to advocate for or against proposed legislation and to ask for funding.

When the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley opens in September, it will receive $253.5 million in funding from the University of Texas System – the second most of any UT institution – demonstrating an impressive investment by system officials in our fledgling university and medical school.

With the creation of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, the word “unification” has been thrown around many times. As the Aug 31 start of classes approaches, pending matters like a university bookstore provider are still in the works.

Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter flooded with posts Tuesday afternoon as students excitedly shared photos and tweets regarding acceptance letters to The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Founding President Guy Bailey has announced the appointment of Theresa A. Maldonado as senior vice president for Research, Innovation, and Economic Development for UTRGV.

New University of Texas System Chancellor William McRaven now has the authority to act on behalf of the UT System Board of Regents to “wind up” matters that UT Brownsville and UT Pan American still have pending before UT Rio Grande Valley begins classes in August.

Now that the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine has been approved as a candidate by the Liaison Committee for Medical Education, site visits are expected during the charter class’ enrollment to be able to fully accredit the Valley’s first medical school.

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley is doing away with remedial courses and instead requiring summer classes for struggling incoming students in hopes to better prepare them for college curriculum.

It’s all new – that was the message touted by Dr. Guy Bailey, president of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, and UT Brownsville President Bill Fannin when they met with our editorial board this week to discuss the Valleywide university that is scheduled to open this fall.

Former president of the University of Alabama and Texas Tech University and first president of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Guy Bailey, served as keynote speaker at the Tip of Texas Counseling Association conference held last Thursday at the The Hilton Garden Inn on South Padre Island.

On a breezy Thursday morning, hundreds gathered on South Padre Island to celebrate National School Counseling Week, and University of Texas Rio Grande Valley President Guy Bailey addressed the Tip of Texas Counseling Association on the importance of counselors as students move on to higher education.

My Leader News: UPDATE: H-E-B is donating $1 million for the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s diabetes research program, it was announced Thursday in a meeting at the Regional Academic Health Center in Harlingen.

HARLINGEN – The City Commission on Wednesday could adopt a resolution supporting a new mascot for the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Amid calls from Edinburg city leaders and University of Texas-Pan American alumni to keep the Bronc as the mascot for the new university, the City Commission here will consider a resolution that supports an entirely new mascot.

Upon the announcement of the top 10 student-selected finalists for the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley mascot, both UT Brownsville and UT-Pan American alumni are sounding off on what they think about the choices. UTRGV is set to open in 2015. With the new university comes a new identity, including a new mascot.

The founding dean of the University of Texas - Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine Francisco Fernandez delivered the keynote address at the Accelerated Professional Relevant Integrated Medical Education - Transformation of Medical Education induction ceremony.

An unexpected announcement late last week by University of Texas System officials that they will indefinitely delay the selection of a site for an administration building for the new University of Texas Rio Grande Valley was genius.

The University of Texas System Board of Regents on Thursday unanimously approved the establishment a doctor of medicine degree program at UT Rio Grande Valley and admissions criteria for incoming freshman, transfer and graduate students.